Commissioner for Railways v Valuer-General: PC 1974

(New South Wales – Court of Appeal) The parties disputed the value of a property in the centre of Sydney beneath which there had been extensive excavations to a depth of 40 feet or more. The question was how the property was to be valued for rating purposes. The statute proceeded on the basis that it was a parcel of land that had to be valued. The Commissioner said that this meant land defined only by vertical boundaries – land usque ad coelum et ad inferos, in other words. The Valuer-General said that it was only possible to value as land that which had a recognisable connection with the surface. Otherwise it had to be valued as stratum, to which special provisions applied.
Held: The question that the Valuer-General’s argument gave rise to was whether there was a complete dichotomy between land and strata beneath it and, if so, what that dichotomy was. The statutory definition did not answer the question how, in the context of the legislation, layers defined by horizontal boundaries were to be treated. ‘It is in relation to this question’, he said, ‘that the Latin tag usque ad coelum et ad inferos has been introduced and given a prominent place in the argument.’ Lord Wilberforce said that it was unlikely that such a sweeping, unscientific and unpractical doctrine as that ‘land’ meant the whole of the space from the centre of the earth to the heavens would appeal to the common law mind.

Judges:

Lord Wilberforce

Citations:

[1974] 1 AC 328

Cited by:

CitedBernstein of Leigh (Baron) v Skyviews and General Ltd QBD 9-Feb-1977
The plaintiff complained that the defendant had flown over his and neighbouring properties and taken aerial photographs, and said that this was a gross invasion of his privacy, and that the defendant had invaded his airspace to do so. The plaintiff . .
CitedStar Energy Weald Basin Ltd and Another v Bocardo Sa SC 28-Jul-2010
The defendant had obtained a licence to extract oil from its land. In order to do so it had to drill out and deep under the Bocardo’s land. No damage at all was caused to B’s land at or near the surface. B claimed in trespass for damages. It now . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Rating

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.268226