Derbyshire Miners' Welfare Committee v Skegness Urban District Council
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS |
| Judgment Date | 26 November 1957 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1957] EWCA Civ J1126-4 |
| Court | Court of Appeal |
| Date | 26 November 1957 |
[1957] EWCA Civ J1126-4
In The Supreme Court of Judicature
Court of Appeal
The Master of the Rolls
(Lord Evershed)
Lord Justice Romer And
Lord Justice Orkerod.
In the Matter of the Rating And Valuation (Mi So Llaneous Provisions) Act. 1955, and
In the Matter of the Derbyshire Miners Holiday Centre.
SIR ARTHUR COMYNS CARR, Q. C., MR. C.E. SCHOLEFIELD and MR. J.D. JAMES, P instructed by Messrs. Wrentmore & Son, Agents for Mr. Ivor Cule (Clerk to the Skegness Urban District Council), appeared for the Appellants (the 8kegness Urban District Council),
MR. GEofFREY CROSS, Q.C., and MR. J. MALCOLM MILNE, instructed by Mr. Lawrence C. Jenkins (Arnold, near Nottingham), appeared for the Respondents (the Derbyshire Miners' Welfare Committee)
: I will ask Lord Justice Ormerod to read the judgment of the Court.
LORD JUSTICE ORMEROD: This is an appeal by the Skegness Urban District Council from a decision of the Divisional Court of the 9th May, 1957, allowing the appeal of the Derbyshire Miners Welfare Committee by way of Case Stated from the Lincoln. (Parts of Lindsey) Quarter Sessions. The Divisional Court held that the respondents were entitled to relief under section 8 of the Rating and Valuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1955.
It is necessary in the first place to set out shortly the various statutory instruments and their provisions by reason of which the respondent committee came into existence and carried out its various objects. Section 30 of the Mining Industry Act, 1920, provided for the setting up of a compulsory levy on every ton of coal mined. This was payable by the mining owners and provision was made for setting up a national committee with the necessary branch committees to administer the fund for the benefit of miners in general. By a similar Act passed in 1936, provision was made for a further levy, this time on the royalty owners, to be applied for similar purposes. It is to be noted that there was never any voluntary contribution to the fund. In 1935 the royalties were nationalised and a commission was established to administer them, which commission remained liable to pay the royalty levy. In 1947 the colliery undertakings were nationalised, and the royalties handed over to the National Coal Board, which became liable to pay the 1920 levy and the royalty levy.
In 1952 the Miners' Welfare Act was passed, which provided that the Miners' Welfare fund constituted under section 20 of the Mining Industry Act, 192Q, should be wound up and the assets transferred as to "colliery welfare property" to the Coal Board and as to other properties to the Social Welfare Organisation, which was defined by section 12 to mean the "Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation incorporated under the Companies Act, 1948". 8ection 13 of the Act provided that the Board should from time to time pay to the Social 'welfare Organisation sur.3 necessary to meet the estimated costs of social welfare activities, which were defined by section 16 as meaning "activities concerned with the maintenance or improvement of the health, social well-being, recreation or conditions of living of persons employed in or about coal mines", or their dependants.
By a lease dated the 6th December, 1940, made between the trustees on behalf of the Derbyshire District 'liners' Welfare Committee of the one part and the Trustees of the Derby-shire District Miners' Holiday Centre of the other part, the lessecs demised to the lessees, the present respondents, a piece of land, together with the buildings thereon, at Seathorne, Skegness, for a term of twenty-one years at a yearly rent of £200. The lease contained a recital that the Liners' Welfare Committee had, on the recommendation of the District Committee, allocated the sum of £35,000 for the provision of a holiday centre for the use and benefit ox workers in or about coal mines, particularly those resident in the Derbyshire district, and that the lessees had been appointed to administer the fund in accordance with the trusts declared in the lease. Clause 6 of the lease provided (inter alia) that the lessees should permit the demised premises to be used as a holiday centre and recreation and pleasure ground for the benefit of workers in or about coal mines employed in the Derbyshire district, including their dependants and invitees. Clause 9 provided that they should assess the payments from persons using the accommodation, facilities and benefits at a figure estimated to produce such a surplus on the running costs as would provide a sufficient reserve for depreciation of the trust property and for the cost of necessary repairs and renewals. It is to be noted that the trust created by the lease was the subject of an order made by the Charity Commission on the 30th February, 1950. Doubts have been raised as to the validity of this order and it was agreed by Counsel on both sides that, for the purposes of this appeal, the powers vested in the respondents were those contained in the lease.
According to the Case Stated, after finding that the respondents had at all material times occupied the heredita ment for the purpose of a holiday centre for the use of workers in and about coal mines in Derbyshire (exclusive of South Derbyshire) and setting out a description of the premises comprising the hereditament, Quarter Sessions found that the camp was provided by the Social Welfare Organisation and was being run by the respondents, who sought to make neither a profit nor a loss in their operations.
Paragraph 8 of the Case further set out as follows "(till)." That the only persons attending the holiday centre were workers in or about coal mines in the district of Derbyshire (excluding South Derbyshire), their wives and children, but that, if all the vacancies were not filled by these persons, they were filled by applicants from other coal fields. (ix) That generally there were no vacancies left to be filled by applicants from other coal fields. (x) That a charge varying from a, 15s.9d. for an adult to £1.10.0d. for a small child was made for a week's holiday accommodation and full board, which charge included the return rail or omnibus fare from the visitor's home to Skegness, (xi) That drinks and other refreshments were sold to persons staying at the holiday centre, alcoholic drinks being acquired by such persons as members of a club and in the winter by local residents who became members of the club. A substantial profit was made out of the supply of drink, but the charge for accommodation was so fixed that, taking all the operations together, the trustees made neither a profit nor a loss."
Quarter Sessions were of opinion (a) that the provision of the holiday home for North Derbyshire diners was not a charitable object in the absence of the element of poverty or ill health, and (b) the purposes of the trust "were not otherwise concerned with the advancement of social welfare, because social welfare connotes a benefit to the community and not a benefit to an individual or to a particular class of work-people employed by one employer." They were consequently of the opinion that the...
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