Sharpness New Docks and Gloucester and Birmingham Navigation Co v Attorney General (At The Relation of The Worcester Corporation): HL 19 Feb 1915

Where the extent of an obligation is defined by statute the common law cannot be invoked to widen it.
Where a canal company were bound by statute to construct to the satisfaction of certain commissioners bridges which ‘shall from time to time be supported, maintained, and kept in sufficient repair,’ the company cannot be compelled to reconstruct the bridges to carry traffic heavier than was in contemplation by the commissioners when the bridges were built.
Decision of Court of Appeal, reported 1914, 3 K.B. 1, reversed.

Judges:

Lord Chancellor (Viscount Haldane), Lords Dunedin, Atkinson, Parker, and Parmoor

Citations:

[1915] UKHL 918, 52 SLR 918

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land

Updated: 05 November 2022; Ref: scu.620675