In 1861 the railway company used its statutory powers to buy some of Mr Blackmore’s land for railway purposes. In 1864 they had a dispute over their boundary. This was settled by an agreement that he should build a wall to be maintained at their joint expense. The agreement included a release of claims in general terms. In 1866 the railway company decided that it did not need the land it had taken and proposed to sell it as surplus land. Mr Blackmore claimed that, as the person from whom it had been taken, he had a statutory right of pre-emption under the Land Clauses Consolidation Act 1845. The railway company argued (rather faintly, it would seem, by their second counsel) that it fell within the description of claims which he surrendered when settling the boundary dispute.
Held: Where a release of a contractual obligation is given, its language will be interpreted having regard to the surrounding circumstances against which it came into existence and with special reference to the ambit of the dispute that was the occasion of its creation.
Lord Westbury said: ‘The general words in a release are limited always to that thing or those things which were specially in the contemplation of the parties at the time when the release was given. But a dispute that had not emerged, or a question which had not at all arisen, cannot be considered as bound and concluded by the anticipatory words of a general release.’
Lord Westbury, Lord Hatherley LC
(1870) 4 AC 610, (1870) LR 4 HL 610, (1870) LJ Ch 713, (1870) 23 LT 504, (1870) JP 324, (1870) 19 WR 305, 39 LJCh 713, [1870] UKLawRpHL 13
Commonlii
Land Clauses (Consolidation) Act 1845 127 128
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal From – Blackmore v London and South Western Railway Company 1868
. .
Cited by:
Cited – Tiffany Investments Ltd and Another v Bircham and Co Nominees (No 2) Limited and others CA 4-Dec-2003
The tenancy was a long lease at a low rent under the 1954 Act, and so had continuing protection under the 1977 Act whilst occupied by the original tenant. The lease was assigned and registered. It had been conditional upon an application to purchase . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land, Contract
Updated: 18 December 2021; Ref: scu.192031
