In 1881 Harbour Trustees made an agreement with a railway company whereby each was to convey to the other for their respective undertakings certain lands which were to be acquired or had already been acquired. The agreement provided the mode in which, calculated according to the cost of acquisition of the lands to be acquired, the price chargeable to the parties for the lands to be conveyed to them respectively was to be fixed. By 1885 the parties were in possession of the respective lands, but owing to disagreement arising out of the terms of the agreement and from the fact that difficulties unforeseen at its date had had to be surmounted, no conveyanoes had been executed and no adjustment of accounts had been made. In 1906 the Harbour Trustees brought an action to have the agreement finally implemented and to recover a sum alleged to be due to them on a balancing of accounts. They claimed interest.
Held (dub. the Lord Chancellor and Lord James) that the circumstances of the case disclosed no specialties sufficient to take it out of the established rule that where a purchaser of heritage entered into possession before the purchase price was paid, interest on the price from the date at which he had obtained full possession ran in favour of the vendor, and that the rate of interest to be charged in the particular case should be 31/2 per centum.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), Lord Ashbourne, Lord James of Hereford, Lord Gorell, and Lord Shaw of Dunfermline
Citations:
[1909] UKHL 1014, 46 SLR 1014
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Land, Contract
Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.620581