A railway company, before applying for a Deviation Act, deposited with the clerk of the peace for the county, plans and sections of the proposed line, and cross sections shewing the manner in which roads were to be carried over the line. On one of those cross sections, No. 3, were delineated the manner in which it was proposed to carry a road at I. over the line by a bridge, and the proposed inclination of the altered line of road. The Deviation Act, when obtained, incorporated the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, and enacted (sect. 9) that it should be lawful to the company to construct the bridges, for carrying the railway thereby authorized over any roads, or for carrying any roads over the said railway, of the heights and spans and in the manner shewn on the sections deposited. The company made the line, and at I. deviated two feet vertically from the level marked on the plans. They carried the road over the line on a bridge of the proposed height and span, but with a different inclination of the altered road. A mandamus having issued, commanding the company to make the bridge and carry the road over it in conformity with crass section, No. 3, and at the rates of inclination delineated thereon as the rates of inclination of the road when altered. 1, That the exhibition of the plans and sections imposed no obligation on the company, except in so far as the plans, andc., were incorporated in the Act. 2. That nothing in the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, rendered the cross sections obligatory on the company. 3. That, if sect. 9 in the special Act was obligatory (which, semble, it was so far as regarded the height and spans of the bridges), the obligation did not extend to the rates of inclination of the altered road, and that, Held, on demurrer to a plea to the return, 1, That
the exhibition of the plans and sections imposed no obligation on the company, except in so far as the plans, andc., were incorporated in the Act. 2. That nothing in the Railway Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, rendered the cross sections obligatory on the company. 3. That, if sect. 9 in the special Act was obligatory (which, semble, it was so far as regarded the height and spans of the bridges), the obligation did not extend to the rates of inclination of the altered road, and that, the mandatory part of the writ going in this respect beyond the obligation
imposed by law, the writ was bad altogether.
Distinguished,
Citations:
[1850] EngR 868, (1850) 16 QB 19, (1850) 117 ER 782
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Transport
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.298215
