Aberdeen Harbour Board v Assessor for Aberdeen
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 30 November 1972 |
| Docket Number | No. 8. |
| Date | 30 November 1972 |
| Court | Court of Session |
SC
L.V.A.C. Lords Fraser, Robertson, Keith.
ValuationValueSubjectsDeratingFreight-transport lands and heritagesFish market adjacent to quayside and occupied and used by town councilLater vested in harbour boardWhether a material change of circumstances affecting value of subjectsWhether subjects occupied and used partly for dock purposesWhether subjects primarily occupied and used for warehousing merchandise not in the course of being transportedValuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956 (4 and 5 Eliz. II, cap. 60), sec. 9Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928 (18 and 19 Geo. V, cap. 44), sec. 5 (1) (c), (2) (c) and (3) and sec. 6 (3) (b).
The Rating and Valuation (Apportionment) Act, 1928, which makes provision for the derating of freight-transport lands and heritages, enacts by sec. 5 (as applied to Scotland), inter alia:"(1) In this Act the expression freight-transport land and heritage means (c) A land and heritage occupied and used wholly or partly for dock purposes as part of a dock undertaking (2) In this Act the following expressions have the meanings hereby respectively assigned to them:Transport purposes means all or any of the following purposes:(c) dock purposes, that is to say, all purposes connected with the shipping or unshipping at a dock of merchandise (3) dock undertaking means an undertaking carried on by a dock authority, but also includes any other undertaking comprising as part thereof a dock in so far only as its business is carried on at and in connection with that dock: dock authority means any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or not, who are authorised to construct or are owners or lessees of any dock authorised by or under any Act." It is enacted by sec. 6 (3) (b) that in the case of a land and heritage occupied and used for dock purposes as part of a dock undertaking no part of the land and heritage, being a building, yard or other place primarily occupied and used for warehousing merchandise not in the course of being transported, shall be deemed to be occupied and used for transport purposes.
The Valuation and Rating (Scotland) Act, 1956 enacts by sec. 9 that the assessor shall, in making up a roll for a year other than a year of revaluation, give effect to any alteration in the value of any lands and heritages which is due to a material change of circumstances.
A fish market, comprising sheds and offices at Aberdeen harbour together with the wharfage on which they stood, was entered in the valuation roll. The subjects were situated a short distance from the quayside and were used for the temporary reception, sorting, boxing and sale of fish cargoes unloaded at the quayside. The subject had been occupied and used by Aberdeen Town Council who had erected the sheds and offices and owned them. On 25th June 1969, however, the subjects vested in Aberdeen Harbour Board, who were a dock authority, as part of their dock undertaking, and were thereafter occupied and used by them. For the purpose of the entry in the valuation roll for the year 1970/71 the Board maintained that there had been a material change of circumstances affecting the value of the subjects, which were now entitled to derating as a freight-transport land and heritage.
Held that there had been a material change of circumstances, and that the subjects were entitled to derating, in respect that since 25th June 1969 they had been occupied and used by a dock authority as part of a dock undertaking: and were occupied and used partly for dock purposes; and not primarily occupied and used for warehousing merchandise not in the course of being transported.
At a meeting of the Valuation Appeal Committee for the County of the City of Aberdeen, the Aberdeen Harbour Board appealed against an entry in the valuation roll for the year 1970/71, in which they were shown as the owners of a Fish Market Undertaking at certain quays in Aberdeen having a Net Annual Value of 9,251. They contended that the subjects were entitled to industrial derating as a "freight-transport land and heritage" as defined in the Rating and Valuation (Appointment) Act, 1928.1 The Committee refused the appeal and at the request of both parties stated a case for the opinion of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court.
The case set forth that the following facts were held by the Committee to be proved on within their knowledge:
"(1) The subjects of appeal, entered in the valuation roll as the fish market undertaking, comprise buildings erected many years ago by Aberdeen Town Council on three wharfs belonging to the appellants the Aberdeen Harbour Board bounding the dock or basin set aside for the landing of fish cargoes. (2) The Harbour Board were, and still are, the owners of the land below and the structure of the wharfs upon which the fish market buildings were erected, in respect of which land and wharf until 1969 the Town paid the Board a rent. The Town Council continued to be owners and occupiers of said fish market buildings until June 1969. (3) The fish market buildings (the subjects of this appeal) consist of covered sheds, largely a high roof structure supported by pillars, with ancillary offices at several points where these are required. The buildings can be closed off from the landward sides (being there bounded by brick walls and large door sections), but lie completely open on the inner sides next the landing quays. (4) The buildings do not extend over to the edge of the quays, but stop 15 feet therefrom. The width of the buildings from the landward side inwards to the line where they stop and the uncovered quayside commences is 60 feet. The floor is more or less on a level throughout, so that there is from the edge of the wharf or quay next the water over to the landward side of the sheds a floor area of 75 feet, of which the first 15 feet next to the water is an open uncovered strip of wharfage which has always belonged to the Board and is not part of the subjects of appeal. The subjects of appeal comprise said fish market buildings, the wharfage on which they are erected and the solum thereof. The floor of the fish market buildings is marked off into sections about 20 feet wide. There are 124 such sections and each vessel is given for the reception of its catch the section opposite its landing berth. (5) The landing of fish cargoes from vessels berthed at the quayside commences daily at 4 a.m. Some fish cargoes are boxed at sea, but usually they are loose in the holds of the vessels, and then in harbour are loaded in the holds into baskets which, with the aid of winches on board the vessels are swung ashore from the decks or holds of the vessels onto the open quayside. Unshipping of the fish is always in such baskets or boxes, usually the former. The baskets or boxes are deposited on the open quayside and the winch then used to unship the next part of the cargo. When the last basket or box has been unshipped onto the quayside the vessel will leave unless it requires, for example, to wait for a tug. After being unshipped onto the open quayside the baskets or boxes are taken by trolley into the fish market to be weighed, sorted and boxed if necessary preparatory to sale there. These boxes containing the fish are laid out in the fish market. The sorting
process preparatory to sale is minimal where (as occasionally happens) the sorting is done at sea and the vessels fish one type of fish at sea. The said boxes contain about 1 cwt. of fish each and are laid out on the floor of the subjects of appeal in rows in preparation for the sales which commence usually at about 7 a.m. The purpose of laying out the fish is for inspection by prospective buyers. Practically the whole of the floor area of the subjects of appeal is required for the sorting, weighing, boxing and laying out of the fish preparatory to sale and the sale itself. Generally all the sold fish is taken away by road transport by or on behalf of the buyers by 12 noon the same day. The trawler owners pay for (1) employees of the Dock Labour Board to unship fish onto the open quayside, (2) other employees of the Dock Labour Board to move the fish to the fish market, and (3) salesmen to auction their fish in the fish market. (6) Fish is a commodity which requires to be handled as quickly as possible as it soon deteriorates in condition when exposed to the elements. The normal rate of discharging the vessels is such that the said uncovered quayside of 15 feet in width would not be sufficient to lay out all the fish landed on a normal morning at the required rate or speed of unloading and in practice the fish when landed thereon is quickly shifted over into the subjects of appeal to create more space on the landing quay and is then sorted, weighed and put in said boxes and laid out ready for sale. To some extent therefore the floor area of the fish market buildings is required for use in the expeditious landing of the cargoes of fish. Even if the fish were not to be sold (as they are) within a few hours of being landed, it would be necessary to box and lay them out in the fish market buildings to facilitate their quick removal from the harbour. (7) They are sold (each vessel's cargo in turn) by salesmen acting for the owners of the respective vessels; and the (1) unloading on the landing quay and (2) weighing, sorting, boxing and shifting within the fish market buildings, are done by porters, employees of the Dock Labour Board for whose services payments are made by the owners association, the porters working in the fish market being licensed fish market porters. (8) Not all the fish sold in the Aberdeen fish market are landed from fishing vessels docking there. Some, having been landed at other ports, are brought by road transport to Aberdeen. In 1969 1188 per cent of the total amount offish sold at the fish market represented "consigned sales", i.e. fish brought in by land transport to be sold at Aberdeen fish market...To continue reading
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