The undertaking of the Clyde Navigation Trustees was defined by the Clyde Navigation Consolidation Act 1858 to embrace, inter alia, ‘The construction and completion of the several wet docks or tidal basins, quays, wharfs, ferry-slips, approaches, embankments or river dykes, and all other works and improvements shown and described on the several plans and sections referred to in the recited Acts, and thereby authorised to be made and maintained.’
Under one of the recited Acts, the Act of 1840, the Trustees of the Clyde Navigation (sec. 11) were empowered to make and maintain’ a variety of works, including the quays of Erskine Ferry on the Clyde, which were authorised to be reconstructed.
By section 50 of the Act of 1840 it was enacted that ‘the said quays shall, at expense of the said trustees, be repaired, so that the working of the said ferry and quay shall be made as convenient, and the working thereof as easy as before’ the operations of the trustees.
In an action by the proprietor of the quays at Erskine Ferry for declarator that the trustees were bound to maintain the quays, the defenders contended that their obligation under sec. 50 of the Act of 1840 was fulfilled once for all as soon as they had repaired the quays, and that sec. 11 imposed no obligation on them, but merely conferred a power. The First Division held that the construction and maintenance of the quays constituted together an accommodation work intended to compensate the owner for interference with his property, and that the pursuer was entitled to decree.
On appeal the House of Lords reversed the decision of the First Division with costs.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Herschell), and Lords Watson, Morris, and Shand
Citations:
[1893] UKHL 954, 30 SLR 954
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Transport
Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.633304
