United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

This Order was promoted by the Caledonian Railway Company for a variety of purposes. Inter alia it was proposed to sanction an agreement entered into between the Dundee Harbour Trustees of the one part and the Caledonian and North British Railways (thereinafter called “the Companies”) as joint owners of the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway of the other part. By the said agreement the Companies acquired from the trustees a railway constructed by the trustees upon their property in Dundee, and hitherto leased by them to the Companies, which formed part of the main line of the Dundee and Arbroath Joint Railway's main line. It was stipulated that the Companies should widen a portion of the said acquired railway, situated between the harbour and the works of the Dundee Gas Commissioners, to form lines of rails; further, that when the Companies had executed this widening they should, so far as reasonably practicable, work the coke, coal, and other traffic to and between the gas-works and the harbour, whether over the existing or over any altered or extended lines of the Companies or of the trustees, and, as soon as said widening had been executed or in any event not later than seven years after confirmation of the agreement, the Companies should, so far as in their ability, respectively carry and convey all goods and mineral traffic tendered to them for conveyance to and from the coal hoist or any part of the harbour over the lines as above described.

The Dundee Gas Commissioners objected to the confirmation of this agreement on the ground that its sanction would prejudice their undertaking, in respect that (1) immediate facilities were required by them for the conveyance of the coke traffic from their works to the harbour and the coal traffic from the harbour to their works, across the Companies' line, which facilities were refused by the Companies; (2) the sanction of the agreement would postpone for seven years the period at which the Companies were bound to give such facilities; and (3) such sanction would prejudice the objectors in an application to the Railway and Canal Commissioners for the facilities required.

The promoters objected to the granting of a locus upon the preamble on the ground that the sole purpose of the opposition to the Order was to obtain facilities for conveyance of the traffic to and from the objectors' works; the objectors' remedy was by application to the Railway and Canal Commissioners for facilities; the sanction of the agreement could in no way prejudice the objectors.

The Commissioners allowed the objectors a locus upon the preamble, and after hearing evidence for parties found the preamble proved.

Heard in Edinburgh, 20th March 1907.