Automobile Proprietary Ltd v Brown
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS,LORD JUSTICE JENKINS,LORD JUSTICE ROMER |
| Judgment Date | 29 March 1955 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1955] EWCA Civ J0329-2 |
| Court | Court of Appeal |
| Date | 29 March 1955 |
[1955] EWCA Civ J0329-2
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
The Master Of The Rolls, (Sir Raymond Evershed)
Lord Justice Jenkins and
Lord Justice Romer.
In the Master of the Local Government Act, 1948.
In the Master of an Appeal to the Lands Tribunal Against a Decision of the South Middlesex Local Valution Court.
Mr G.D. SQUIBB (instructed by Mr. A. J. A, Hanhart) appeared on behalf of the Appellants.
Mr MAURICE LYELL, Q. C., and Mr. PATRICK BROWNE (instructed by the Solicitor of Inland Revenue) appeared on behalf of the Respondent.
At the beginning of his interesting argument in opening this case Mr. Squibb told us that in order to succeed he must show that the hereditament here in question was being occupied by the Appellant Company, the Automobile Proprietary Limited, by way of trade or for the purposes of gain. The latter alternative, as I think, has no application and, therefore, I amend Mr. Squibb's sentence: "In order to succeed I must show that the hereditament is being occupied by way of trade", that being, as will be seen, a reflection of certain language in the Factory and Workshop Act, 1901. The Tribunal from whom the appeal comes was of opinion that the condition stated by Mr. Squibb had been satisfied. They took the view - I am reading from paragraph 12 of the Case stated - having regard to a dictum of Lord Wright in the case of The National Association of Local Government Officers v. Bolton Corporation in 1943 Appeal Cases, page 184, and the decision in Challoner v. Robinson, 1908, 1 Chancery, page 49, that all the work done on the hereditaments "being work done in carrying on a proprietary club was done 'by way of trade'". With all respect to the Tribunal I have come to a different conclusion on that point; for, in my judgment, it is not true to say that the activities (which I will describe presently in more detail) with which we are concerned are activities undertaken by the Appellant Company by way of trade; and if that view is right then, as Mr. Squibb conceded, he cannot here succeed.
Certain other points have also been raised but I shall confine my conclusion to the view I take on that point and as will be seen, I shall find it unnecessary to express, and shall not express, any concluded view on those other matters.
First I must make some further reference to the facts. They are stated at considerable length in a number of sub-paragraphs of paragraph 8 of the Case stated, and, if necessary, reference can be made to those paragraphs of the Case. I shall read some of them which are necessary to make clear what follows.
Thus: sub-paragraph (c): "The Appellants have established a Club known as the Royal Automobile Club the members of which are required to be members of the Company. (d) The Appellants have provided a club-house in Pall Mall, London, and a country club at Woodcote park, Epsom, available for the use of such members. (e) The Appellants also provide services and facilities in connection with motoring such as road patrols, road-side telephone boxes, road signs, assistance in home and foreign touring, legal aid, etc. (f) There is another class of members of the Royal Automobile Club termed 'Associate Members' who are not members of the Company and who are not entitled to use the club-house or country club but who are entitled to the services and facilities referred to in paragraph (e). The affairs and finances of the associate members are administered by a committee specially constituted for this purpose". I pause to note that we are not told how that committee is in fact constituted though Mr. Lyell stated that, as he understood it, it was in fact a committee of the members of the club and, therefore, of the company. "(g)The subscriptions of Associate Members arc wholly utilised for the services and facilities referred to in paragraph (e). These services and facilities are paid for out of a separate fund provided by the subscriptions of the associate members and by a capitation fee in respect of the full members; it is not the object of the club to make a profit, but to provide the maximum services and facilities which the available money is sufficient to provide, and this fund is wholly spent on the provision of such services and facilities". The Case then proceeds to state in great detail the facts in regard to the Company's fleet of vehicles, their upkeep, and so on - the fleet which is maintained for the purpose of providing the services mentioned in paragraph (e). The hereditament with which we are concerned and which is situate in Maswell Park Road, Hounslow, is a place substantially devoted in one way and another to various aspects of the upkeep of these road vehicles and their component parts.
I shall refer presently to the plan attached to the Case but, quite briefly, upon this hereditament arc, first of all, the means for the service of and repair of the vehicles which I have mentioned and of separate parts of those vehicles. Generally speaking the parts are sent to the Company's premises for re-conditioning, and the Company sends out to the patrolman (whose vehicle may be a very long way from London) another part out of its stock, either a new part which has been acquired or a similar part which previously has been re-conditioned by the Company, in order that the vehicle should be kept on the road and kept efficiently on the road and that there should not be the waste of time taken by bringing the whole vehicle, let us say, all the way from Newcastle-upon-Tyne to London to have the particular part replaced.
In addition to those activities of service and repair a certain few vehicles are housed on these premises. There is also an activity of making badge fittings. I take it to be generally known that members and associate members of the Royal Automobile Club are entitled to carry upon their vehicles a badge indicating such membership and it is at this place that badge fittings are made in large quantities for the benefit of members and associate members. Finally, there is a place for the painting of the road signs which I have referred to earlier. All those activities, in addition to what may be called offices and store premises, arc to be found at this hereditament.
I turn accordingly next to the plan attached to the Case. The ground floor of the premises consists, first, at the back - that is the part most remote from Maswell Park Road - of a section which we have referred to in argument as the pink section. In area I dare say that would amount to something like a quarter of the whole ground floor area. It is itself divided into three distinct parts separated one from another by partitions. In one the bracket making takes place, to which I have already alluded. In another the activity known as brazing occurs and for the purposes of this case it has been conceded by Mr. Lyellthat the brazing can be taken to be an activity so connected with the bracket making that, since the bracket making part is, for reasons which I shall later state, certainly a factory or workshop within the language of the Act of 1901, that part of the pink which is occupied for the brazing should also be taken to be occupied as a factory or workshop. The third part is devoted to the painting of the signs which I have also mentioned. That is not in terms within the Schedule to the 1901 Act, and if that is to be regarded as a factory for the purposes of the section it must be because that activity is being undertaken "by way of trade". So much for the pink part.
Then the larger ground floor section (roughly, perhaps, three times in area the size of the pink part) is made up of parts coloured on the plan yellow, grey or neutral, and blue. There is a small pink area called Frame Stores but that may be disregarded for present purposes. The grey part (in so far as it does not consist of canteens, lavatories and other such uses which are incidental to the main purpose for which the promises are used, being for the convenience and needs of those employed there; may be called the general manoeuvering part, vehicles coming in to the grey part and going thence to whatever other section of the building is appropriate. In the very middle there is coloured yellow the standing place to accomodate four vehicles. The section which is lettered "A" and which is coloured yellow is, perhaps, itself a quarter of the total of this part of the ground floor in space. It is not suggested that the uses to which "A" is put are in themselves purposes of a factory or workshop within the meaning of the relevant Statute. Some service takes place there of motor cars: there is a washing bay, and so forth. But the most important section for present purposes is the blue part which is also lettered "D"; for it is on that part, save in so far as it is made up of stores, that the repair and maintenance of the vehicles and of the units of parts of vehicles takes place. As will be seenlater a very great deal depends in the view taken by the Tribunal on the appropriate answer to the question: For the purposes of the de-rating is this blue part, lettered "D", occupied for factory purposes or not?
There is upstairs a much smaller area consisting of a gallery and general offices, but this area which is used in fact for storing documents or records of the town or country club, as I understand, do not play, for the purposes of the present argument, any significent part.
I have given that brief and, I hope, sufficient description of the premises or hereditament and it will therefore be clear when I refer hereafter to the pink part and to the blue part, lettered "D", to what I mean to allude.
I now turn to the relevant statutory provisions (some of which I have already...
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