Criminal Law and Practice in Scotland
| Date | 01 July 1940 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X4001300303 |
| Published date | 01 July 1940 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Criminal
Law
and Practice
in Scotland
WHAT
IS
UNLADEN
WEIGHT?
Mackie v. Waugh
THE effect of the recent decision of the High Court of
Justiciary in Mackie v. Waugh (March 8th, 1940) is to set
up, in Scotland, a double standard of unladen weight. For
revenue purposes a vehicle's weight may be over, and for
Road Traffic purposes under, two and a half tons. Chaotic as
the result of this may be, there is no escape from it. Until fresh
legislation has set matters right, Traffic Officersmust make the
best of a bad job.
The
facts in Mackie's case were in no sense abnormal.
Having, in 1937, acquired aplatform motor lorry weighing
2tons 9 cwts., he registered it and paid the duty
(£30
per
annum). Later in the same year, in order to convey livestock,
he had fitted to the lorry a container of a familiar type with
built-in wooden floor, held on the lorry's platform by its own
weight and by projections fitting over the platform.
The
vehicle was used on three days a week with the container for
livestock and on other days with the container removed for
general goods conveyance.
The
container was lifted off by
block and tackle at Mackie's premises. This was always done
when the container was empty and could not safely have been
done otherwise. For nearly two years the authorities accepted
this position, treating the vehicle's unladen weight, for all
purposes, as under
2t
tons.
In
February 1939, however, fol-
lowing upon the High Court decision in Paterson v. Burnet,
1939
J.e.
12,
the Taxation Authority called for are-declaration
of unladen weight.
The
weight of the vehicle plus the container
being 2tons 19 cwts., the Authority insisted upon payment of
264
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