In the Scottish Courts
| Date | 01 October 1956 |
| Published date | 01 October 1956 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002201835602000406 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
In the Scottish Courts
RAILWAYS
ACT-LOCAL
OFFENCES AND PENALTIES
British Transport
Commission
v. Stewart (1956,
S.L.T.
133)
Bysection 135 of
the
Railways Clauses Consolidation
(Scotland) Act, 1845, a railway company is bound to
publish short particulars of offences for which apenalty is
imposed, and
the
amount of the penalty. Such publication
is to be made on some conspicuous
part
of
the
principal place
of business of the company, and where any such penalties
are of local application boards, with details of
the
offence and
penalty, are to be affixed in some conspicuous place in
the
immediate neighbourhood to which such penalties are applic-
able.
The
section also provides
that
these latter particulars
shall be renewed as often as they are obliterated or destroyed,
and unless this is done no penalty shall be recoverable.
Section 68 of
the
same Act makes it an offence to fail to
shut
and
fasten any gate at an accommodation railway crossing.
In
1948 the British
Transport
Commission erected gates
at an accommodation level crossing serving a farm in Aberdeen-
shire. These gates were a renewal of old gates which had fallen
into such abad state of repair
that
they would neither open or
close, and had been in such astate for a number of years.
Notices were not displayed at or near
the
crossing intimating
that
it was an offence not to close
the
gates, nor, of course,
was any mention made of
the
penalty. A van driver on his way
to
the
farm opened
the
gates and drove on to
the
farm, a
distance of
200
yards, leaving
the
gates open behind him.
He
spent about half an hour at the farm and by
the
time he
returned the gates had been closed by railway police officers.
He
again opened them and was on his way back to close
them
when he was charged by these railway officers in respect
of his first failure to close the gates.
At his trial before
the
Sheriff,
the
van driver did
not
dispute the facts,
but
took up
the
position
that
as
the
British
363
To continue reading
Request your trial