United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

Subject_Private Legislation Procedure — Provisional Order — Compulsory Acquisition of Ground Previously Compulsorily Acquired by Railway Company — Superfluous Land — Macfie v. Callander & Oban Railway Company, 1897, 24 R. 1156, 25 R. (H.L.) 19. Headnote:

The Postmaster-General promoted this Order to obtain compulsory powers to acquire a site for a post office in the town of Oban. The ground sought to be acquired had been acquired under compulsory powers by the Callander & Oban Railway Company in 1878. In 1893 negotiations were nearly completed between the Postmaster-General and the Railway Company for the sale of the ground in question by the latter to the former for the site of a post office, but, owing to questions having arisen as to the power of the Railway Company to sell the land, the negotiations fell through. Mr Macfie, the proprietor from whom the land had been compulsorily acquired by the Railway Company, brought an action to have it declared that the land was “superfluous” land to the Railway Company, and as such, under the provisions of the Lands Clauses Act, had reverted after the lapse of ten years to him without payment. The House of Lords held that the land was not “superfluous land” within the meaning of the Act— Macfie v. Callander and Oban Railway Company, 1897, 24 R. 1156, 25 R. (H.L.) 19, 34 S.L.R. 828, 35 S.L.R. 413.

The Callander and Oban Railway Company and the Caledonian Railway Company objected to the Order.

Evidence was led.

Argued for the objectors—The granting of the Order would be a serious injury to the objectors. The Post Office authorities had misconceived the duty which lay upon persons who sought to acquire compulsorily the property of others. Their whole case was that the only available site for a Post Office in Oban was this ground belonging to the Railway Company. The word available was not to be construed as meaning empty and cheap, and, unless so construed, it was proved that there were several other available sites. It was entirely without precedent, and it would be to admit a very vicious precedent if the Commission were to sanction the doctrine that a public body like the Post Office was to be entitled to compulsorily take land belonging to another statutory corporation, namely the Railway Company, which had acquired it compulsorily for its own ends, paying a full price by arbitration for it, and which was of the greatest and most vital importance for it. It had been shown that there was a prospect of a very great extension of the railway traffic at Oban, and the ground in question would be necessary to meet the requirements of this extension of traffic. This had been held to be so by the House of Lords in Macfie v. Callander and Oban Railway Company ( supra). The preamble of the Order should be held not proved.

Argued for the promoters—This land had been acquired by the Railway under compulsory powers, but that fact did not prevent another public body from acquiring right to compulsorily take the land. The question was which of the two public bodies had a case of greater necessity or higher urgency. This land had been in possession of the Railway Company for twenty years, and had not been used for railway purposes. In 1893 they had been willing to sell it to the Post Office authorities. Six years had passed since the case of Macfie v. Callander and Oban Railway ( supra), and the land was still unoccupied. There was no other land in Oban so suitable as this for a postoffice—certainly no land unoccupied by buildings—and when land covered with buildings was wanted by the Post Office the prices demanded were prohibitive. In these circumstances the preamble of the Order should be held proved.

The Chairman intimated that the Commissioners were of opinion that the preamble was not proved.