‘The Court has to find what the parties must be taken to have bought and sold respectively, remembering that no definition of ‘minerals’ is attainable, the variety of meanings which the use of the word ‘minerals’ admits of being itself the source of all the difficulty. It must be taken that what the Railway Company intended to get and the landowners intended to give was the land under the line, for the object was to give, not a way leave but a support. I say this, speaking generally. Upon the other hand, if anything exceptional in use, character, or value was thereunder, that was reserved, provided it could be included under the word ‘minerals’ as understood in the vernacular of the mining world and the commercial world and the landowner.’- Per the Lord Chancellor.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), Lord Macnaghten, Lord Shaw, and Lord Robson
Citations:
[1911] UKHL 526
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Land
Updated: 17 June 2022; Ref: scu.619193