Newbyth Estates Ltd v Inland Revenue
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Thankerton,Lord Wright,Lord Simonds,Lord Uthwatt |
| Judgment Date | 29 March 1946 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1946] UKHL J0329-3 |
| Date | 29 March 1946 |
| Court | House of Lords |
| Docket Number | No. 2. |
[1946] UKHL J0329-3
House of Lords
Lord Thankerton
Lord Macmillan
Lord Wright
Lord Simonds
Lord Uthwatt
After hearing Counsel on Tuesday the 26th day of February last, upon the Petition and Appeal Newbyth Estates, Limited, 16 St. Andrew Square Edinburgh, praying, That the matter of the Decision and Interlocutor set forth in the Schedule thereto namely, a Decision of the Referee appointed by the Land Values Reference Committee, of the 21st August 1943, and also an Interlocutor of the Judges named for the purpose of hearing Appeals under the Valuation of Lands (Scotland) Acts, of the 8th February 1944, except so far as regards the words "Find no expenses due to or by either party in connection with the Special Case on Appeal" might be reviewed before His Majesty the King, in His Court of Parliament, and that the said Decision and Interlocutor, except so far as aforesaid, might be reversed, varied or altered, or that the Petitioners might have such other relief in the premises as to His Majesty the King, in His Court of Parliament, might seem meet; as also upon the printed Case of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue, lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side in this Cause:
It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in the Court of Parliament of His Majesty the King assembled, That the said Decision of the 21st day of August 1943, and the said Interlocutor of the 8th day of February 1944, in part complained of in the said Appeal, be, and the same are hereby. Affirmed, and that the said Petition and Appeal be, and the same is hereby, dismissed this House: And it is further Ordered, That the Appellants do pay, or cause to be paid, to the said Respondents the Costs incurred by them in respect of the said Appeal, the amount thereof to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments: And it is also further Ordered, That unless the Costs, certified as aforesaid, shall be paid to the parties entitled to the same within One Calendar Month from the date of the Certificate thereof, the Cause shall be, and the same is hereby. remitted back to the Court of Session in Scotland, or to the Judge acting as Vacation Judge, to issue such Summary Process or Diligence for the recovery of such Costs as shall be lawful and necessary.
My Lords,
The Appellants appeal against assessments to Mineral Rights Duty and Royalties Welfare Levy, each in the sum of £15 15s. od. for the financial year which ended on 31st March, 1943. In the first instance, their appeal was heard by the Referee appointed by the Land Values Reference Committee in terms of the statutory provisions and rules made thereunder, and he held that the assessments had been properly made on the Appellants, and were for the correct amounts. On the requisition of the present Appellants, the Referee stated a case for the opinion of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court, in which the question of law was:
"On a true construction of the relevant provisions of the Finance (1909- 10) Act, 1910, was I entitled to find ( a) that the assessments complained of had been properly laid on the Appellants, and ( b) that the said assessments were for the proper amounts?"
The Judges of the Lands Valuation Appeal Court, by interlocutor dated 8th February, 1944, answered the question of law submitted in the case, both branches in the affirmative. Hence the present Appeal. As before the Lands Valuation Appeal Court, so also before this House, it was agreed that the assessment to Royalties Welfare Levy raised no different point from the assessment to Mineral Rights Duty, and would be governed by the decision on the latter assessment. Counsel for the Appellants stated that he raised no question as to the correctness of the amounts of the assessments.
I apprehend that it will be more convenient to recall first the relevant statutory provisions of the Finance (1909- 10) Act, 1910, which are to be found in sections 20 and 24, the material portions of which are as follows:
"20.—(1) There shall be charged, levied and paid for the financial year ending the thirty-first day of March nineteen hundred and ten and every subsequent financial year on the rental value of all rights to work minerals and of all mineral wayleaves, a duty (in this Act referred to as a mineral rights duty) at the rate in each case of one shilling for every twenty shillings of that rental value.
(2) The rental value shall be taken to be—
( a) Where the right to work the minerals is the subject of a mining lease, the amount of rent paid by the working lessee in the last working year in respect of that right; and
( b) Where minerals are being worked by the proprietor thereof, the amount which is determined by the Commissioners to be the sum which would have been received as rent by the proprietor in the last working year if the right to work the minerals had been leased to a working lessee for a term and at a rent and on conditions customary in the district, and the minerals had been worked to the same extent and in the same manner as they have been worked by the proprietor in that year:
* * * * * * * * *
(3) Every proprietor of any minerals and every person to whom any rent is paid in respect of any right to work minerals or of any mineral wayleave shall, upon notice being given to him by the Commissioners requiring him to give particulars as to the amount received by him in respect of the right or wayleave, as the case may be, and where the proprietor is working the minerals, particulars as to the minerals worked, make a return in the form required by the notice, and within the time, not being less than thirty days, specified in the notice, and in default shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding fifty pounds to be recovered in the High Court.
(4) Mineral rights duty shall be assessed by the Commissioners and shall be payable at any time after the first day of January in the year for which the duty is charged, and any such duty for the time being unpaid shall be recoverable as a debt due to His Majesty from the proprietor of the minerals, where the proprietor is working the minerals, and in any other case from the immediate lessor of the working lessee. As between the immediate lessor and the working lessee, the duty shall be borne by the immediate lessor, notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, whether made before or after the passing of this Act.
* * * * * * * * *
24. For the purpose of the provisions of this Act as to minerals—
The expression 'proprietor' means the person for the time being entitled in possession to the minerals, or to the rents and profits thereof, or any part of those rents and profits, but does not include a person entitled as lessee other than a person entitled to the possession of land comprised in a lease for any long term of years to which section sixty-five of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, 1881, applies.
* * * * * * * * *
The expression 'working lessee' means as respects the right to work minerals the lessee who is actually working the minerals, or who would have the right actually to work the minerals if the minerals were worked, and as respects mineral wayleaves the lessee who is in actual enjoyment of the way-leave, and the expression 'immediate lessor' shall be construed accordingly;
The expression 'working year' means the year ending the thirtieth day of September, or such other day as may in any case be approved by the Commissioners; and the expression 'last working year' means the working year completed immediately before the first day of January in any financial year for which the duty was paid."
As already mentioned, the financial year for which the duty is claimed in this case is the year ending thirty-first March, 1943; no other date having been approved of, the last working year in this case was the year ending the thirtieth September, 1942. The other facts in this case are simple:—At the commencement of the last working year the Appellants were the proprietors of certain minerals, including coal, under their lands of Gilmerton, near Edinburgh, of which the Gilmerton Colliery Company Ltd. were the working lessees under a lease originally granted by the Appellants' predecessor for a period of 31 years from Whitsunday, 1925, to a colliery company who had assigned their rights as tenants to the Gilmerton Colliery Company. At Whitsunday, 1942, the Appellants received from the working lessees in respect of the year from Whitsunday, 1941, to Whitsunday, 1942, the minimum fixed rent of £650 and £68 3s. od. in respect of wayleave rent; these sums were subject to certain deductions, to which it is unnecessary to refer.
On the 1st July, 1942, the coal which was the subject of the lease and the right to the wayleave rent vested in the Coal Commission by virtue of the Coal Act, 1938, and the Appellants ceased to be proprietors within the meaning of section 24 of the aforesaid Finance Act. The assessments in question were made on the Appellants on 2nd March, 1943.
The Appellants submitted that consideration of the first four sub-sections of section 20 made clear that there was no indication in the first three sub-sections as to how or upon whom the assessments were to be laid, that being reserved for sub-section (4); that sub-section (1) deals only with the charge on the rental value for the particular financial year; that sub-section (2) provides the means of calculating rental value; and that sub-section (3) merely provides machinery for obtaining particulars. As regards subsection (4), the Appellants at first maintained that the restriction to a date after the 1st January in the year for which the duty is charged applied to the date of assessment as well as to the date of payment, but later they did not press that point, but placed the...
To continue reading
Request your trial