The Mersey Docks and Harbour Board, Appellants; the Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of Liverpool, Respondents
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Year | 1875 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Poor-rate - Assessment of Public Docks - Tenant's Profits - 6 & 7 Wm. 4, c. 96, s. 1.
The appellants are incorporated by certain Acts under which they hold docks and other property connected with the docks, and they are authorized to levy dock rates and duties from the owners of vessels and goods for the privilege of using the docks, and they are bound to apply the dock rates and all money received by them from the dock property according to the directions of the Acts. There are no shareholders, and no person derives any personal advantage or emolument whatsoever from the money received by the appellants; and all the rates are appropriated in payment of all expenses and charges of collecting the rates, and the several other purposes specified in the Acts, and the residue in repaying money borrowed. The appellants, having been rated to the poor-rate:—
Held, that the appellants were not entitled, in addition to the cost of collecting the rates, to a deduction for tenant's profits.
BY a rate made for the relief of the poor of the parish of Liverpool, on the 27th of May, 1865, the appellants were assessed in the sum of 214,944l., in respect of the annual value of certain of the dock estates within the parish which are vested in them.
The appellants appealed against the rate to the Liverpool Quarter Sessions, and the following case was agreed upon:—
1. The appellants are a corporation incorporated and regulated by and under “The
2. The first dock on the Lancashire side of the Mersey was made under the authority of 8 Anne, c. xii., whereby the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council of Liverpool were incorporated to make a dock (since filled up) on the south side of the town of Liverpool, and the duties leviable under that Act were not to be applied to any purposes except the building and repairing of the dock.
3. Other docks were subsequently made on the Lancashire side of the Mersey by the corporation of Liverpool, under the authority of other Acts of Parliament, similarly limiting the application of the receipts from the docks, as was provided by the Act of 8 Anne, c. xii., until by 51 Geo. 3, c. cxliii., the mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and common council were formed into a body corporate, and the docks and works on the Lancashire side of the river were vested in them, under the style of “The trustees of the Liverpool Docks.”
4. The trustees so incorporated were empowered by the last-mentioned Act to levy certain rates, and when all charges and mortgages upon such rates should be paid off, they were required to lower and reduce the rates and duties thereby granted, so far as could be done in the state of the docks and works, so as to leave sufficient for all charges of management and collection of rates, and improving, repairing, and maintaining the docks and works so vested in them.
5. Subsequently other Acts, relating to the docks on the Lancashire side of the Mersey, were passed, in all twenty-two in number, and forming a series extending from 8 Anne, to 21 Vict.
6. Other docks were formed on the Cheshire side of the Mersey, at Birkenhead, under the authority of a series of fourteen Acts of Parliament, extending from 7 & 8 Vict. to 18 & 19 Vict., by which last-mentioned Act all the Birkenhead docks are vested in the corporation of Liverpool.
7. By s. 27 of the Act of 1867 (20 & 21 Vict. c. clxii.), it is provided that
“All such docks, lights, buoys, lands, buildings, and other property, both real and personal, situate at Liverpool, or elsewhere, as was held by or in trust for the trustees of Liverpool docks, under or in pursuance or for the purposes of any of the Acts mentioned in the first part of the schedule thereto annexed, should, upon and after the 1st of January, 1858, vest in the appellants, but subject to all charges and liabilities affecting the same.”
8. By s. 49 of the same Act it is enacted that,
“Subject to the provisions of this Act the Appellants shall stand possessed of all the property, powers, rights, and privileges thereby transferred to them, upon the trusts and for the purposes upon and for which such property, powers, rights, and privileges were holden previous to the commencement of that Act.”
9. By s. 50 of the same Act it is provided that
“From and after the 1st of January, 1858, all docks and works belonging to the board, and all docks and works that may hereafter belong to the board, shall be deemed to constitute one estate only, hereafter called ‘The Mersey Dock Estate,’ and a uniform system of management shall be adopted with respect to the whole of such Mersey Dock estate.”
9. Sect. 56 enacts as follows:—
“The following rules shall be observed by the board with respect to the moneys received by them under this Act (that is to say):—
“(1.) The conservancy expenditure shall be defrayed out of the conservancy receipts.
“(2.) The pilotage expenditure shall be defrayed out of the pilotage receipts.
“(3.) No portion of the conservancy receipts or pilotage receipts shall be applied in aid of the general expenditure.
“(4.) No sum shall be payable in respect of docks by any vessel that does not use the same.
“(5.) Save as by this Act is provided no moneys receivable by the board shall be applied to any purpose, unless the same conduces to the safety or convenience of ships frequenting the port of Liverpool, or facilitates the shipping or unshipping of goods, or is concerned in discharging a debt contracted for the above purpose.”
10. The dock estate at present consists of basins, docks, piers, jetties, graving docks, gridirons, wharfs, quays, landing stages, slips, stairs, river walls, dams, embankments, locks, gates, bridges, weirs, sluices, tunnels, cuts, channels, roads, railways, tramways, warehouses, sheds, offices, buildings, cranes, engines, machinery, and other works and conveniences affixed or appertaining to such basins and docks, or necessary for the working thereof: and the appellants are authorized to receive large sums of money under the name of dock rates and duties, by virtue of the Act of Parliament, from the owners of vessels and goods for the privilege of using the dock property.
11. The appellants are bound to apply the present dock rates and dues, and all other moneys received by them out of the dock estate, according to the directions of the Acts. There are no shareholders, and no member of the board or other person derives any personal advantage or emolument whatsoever from the execution of the dock estate, or has any interest in the dock estate, or in the moneys received by the appellants.
12. All the property vested in the appellants was acquired, and all the dock works, &c. were made and provided by them and their predecessors under the several Acts of Parliament, solely for the purpose of the dock business, and none of the property, docks, works, &c., are used for any other purposes whatsoever, and all the money derived by the board from any part of the property is carried to the provisions of the Act of Parliament.
13. The docks and dock property were erected and purchased by borrowed money, and the dock estate is now subject to a large debt in respect thereof, the annual interest on which is paid by the appellants out of their income, as hereinafter mentioned.
14. The payment of this interest and the application of the income is provided for by s. 284 of the
“Subject to the provisions of the
“In payment from time to time of all interest accruing due on moneys borrowed and to be borrowed, and in payment of the Mersey Docks annuities hereinafter authorized to be granted, according to the respective priorities of such moneys...
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