The Queen against The London and North Western Railway Company
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 30 April 1851 |
| Date | 30 April 1851 |
| Court | Court of the Queen's Bench |
English Reports Citation: 117 E.R. 1113
QUEEN'S BENCH.
S. C. 6 Railw. Case. 634; 20 L. J. Q. B. 399; 15 Jur. 873.
[864] the queen against the london and north western railway company. Wednesday, April 30th, 1851. An Act establishing a railway company recited that the making of the railway would be of public advantage, and that the persons after named were willing at their own expense to execute it, and enacted that it should be lawful for them to make and maintain their railway in the line and on the lands described in their books of reference, and to take and use such of the lands as should be necessary for such purpose: and that the railway should be completed within seven years from the passing of the Act. An Act passed in the next year empowered them to alter the line, arid made it lawful for them to make and maintain the alterations on the lands described in certain other books of reference. Among the alterations was a deviation from, and extension of, the B. branch of the original line. And it was enacted that the compulsory powers of the company to purchase lands for the purposes of this Act should cease afc the end of three years from its passing. By a third Act, passed in the following year, all the undertaking of the above company, all their real and personal estate, and all their estate, right, &c. and interest in the said undertaking were vested in the London & North Western Railway Company; and it was enacted that the undertaking might be lawfully executed, completed, &c., by them as it might have been executed, &c. by the original company if this Act had not passed : that all the works which the original company was authorized or required to complete, and which were uncompleted, should be completed by the London & North Western Railway Company, and they should have power to pay for the same out of the moneys placed at their disposal by this Act. The capital of the original company was declared part of the London & North Western Railway Company's capital, and their receipts to be deemed receipts to the account of the London & North Western Railway Company; and such capital and receipts were to be applied in payment of the expenses which, but for this Act, would have been payable out of the capital and receipts of the original company. And that company was dissolved except for the particular purposes mentioned in this Act. The former limitations of time for executing the works were not altered. The companies were amalgamated accordingly : the main line of railway was completed ; and the London & N. W. R. Company received tolls on it; but the B. branch remained incomplete. Four years after the passing of the original Act, and more than two years and ten months after the passing of the Deviation Act, persons interested in the making of the B. branch called upon the London & N. W. R. Company to purchase the necessary lands for completing it, which they refused; and a mandamus afterwards issued, ordering them to purchase the necessary lands for completing the B. branch, and to complete the same. The return stated that, before the passing of the Incorporation Act, the original company had raised all the money which their Acts empowered them to raise, and had bona fide expended it in making the main line: and that neither that company nor the London & N. W. R. Company had at the time of the application to them to purchase, &c., or sinee, power by any Act of Parliament to raise or procure money beyond the sum raised as aforesaid, for the purpose of making the original railway or any- deviation therefrom, or for the purchase of lands, &c. And that, after the applica tion to defendants to purchase, &c., and before a reasonable time in that behalf had elapsed, and before the coming of the writ, all the powers of either company to purchase lands for completing, &c., according to the several Acts of Parliament, had caased and determined. On demurrer to this return: Held, that that part which alleged a determination of the power to purchase was an answer to the writ, the return shewing sufficiently that compliance was impracticable. Quaeres whether, tbe previous averments as to want of funds would have been a sufficient excuse to the London & N. W. R. Company for not obeying the writ. ; [S, C. 6 Railw. Cas. 634; 20 L. J. Q. B. 399; 15 Jur. 873.] Mandamus; teste, 22d April 1850. The writ recited stat. 8 & 9 Viet, xxxvi. 1114 THE QUEEN V. LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN ELY. CO. 16 Q. B. 865. local and personal, public (a)1, which Act, after reciting that the [865] making of a railway from Leeds by Dewsbury to Huddersfield in tbe West Riding of Yorkshire should be of great public advantage, &c., and that the persons thereinafter named " were willing, at their own expense, to carry such undertaking into execution," incorporated the Leeds, Dewsbury & Manchester Railway Company for the purpose of making a railway from Holbeck in the parish of Leeds, there forming a junction with the Leeds & Bradford Railway, by the town of Dewsbury, to or near to the town of Huddersfield, and also to, and to form a junction with, the Manchester & Leeds Railway in the parish of Kirkheaton, all in the said riding, together with the branch railways thereinafter mentioned ; and gave them perpetual succession, and power to purchase and hold lands for the purposes of the undertaking, within the restrictions contained in this Act and the Companies, Lands and Railways Clauses Consolidation Acts, 1845, which were expressly incorporated with this Act. The writ also recited that, by the same special Act, it was enacted, that (subject to the provisions of the said several Acts) " it should be lawful for the said company to make and maintain the said railway and works in the line and upon the lands" described in the plans and books of reference deposited with the clerk of the peace of the said riding, and to enter upon, take, and use, such of the said lands as should be necessary for such purpose: that the special Act prescribed the course and termini of the railway (which the writ stated), and directed certain branch railways to be made, one of which "should commence in the township and parish of Batley, and [866] should pass through or into the several townships of," &c., " and should terminate at or near the town of Birstal in the township of Gomersal and parish of Birstal aforesaid:" and it further enacted, that the railway should be completed within seven years from the passing of the now reciting Act, and on the expiration of such period the powers by that Act, or the said Acts mentioned therein, granted to the company for executing the railway or otherwise in relation thereto should cease to be exercised except as to so much of the railway as should then be completed. The writ then recited stat. 9 & 10 Viet. c. cclxii., local and personal, public (a)2, which incorporated (so far as they were applicable, and not repealed by this Act) all the provisions of the company's former Act, and enacted (by sect. 7), that it should "he lawful lor" the Leeds, Dewsbury, &c. Company to make and maintain certain proposed alterations of line and extensions, &c. upon the lands mentioned in the plans and books of reference which they had deposited, shewing the proposed alterations, and to enter upon, take and use such of the said lands as might be required for the purposes specified in this Act. The writ also stated that by this Act the company were " required to abandon " so much of the railway and branches originally authorized as would be rendered unnecessary by the proposed alterations; among which were an alteration or deviation in the line of the Birstal branch, and an extension of that branch : and that by this statute (sect. 20) it was enacted that [867] the alterations, branches, extensions and works thereby authorized should be completed within five years from the passing of this Act, and, on the expiration of such period, the powers by the now reciting Act or the said Leeds, Dewsbury, &c. Act, 1845, granted to the company for executing the same should cease to be exercised, except as to so much of the same respectively as should then be completed : and the company's powers under the Act of 1845, were, from the passing of this Act, determined, as to the works which were to be abandoned (a)3. The writ thirdly recited stat. 10 & 11 Viet. c. clix., local and personal, public (b), (a)1 "For making a railway from Leeds by Dewsbury to Huddersfield, all in the West Riding of the...
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