Lawton LJ considered the scheme of compensation under the 1961 Act and said: ‘The assessment of compensation in cases such as this is a most difficult task calling for the judicial use of fertile imagination. Assumptions have to be made (see ss 14, 15 and 16) and some realities disregarded (eg any increase in value which is entirely due to the scheme underlying the acquisition – the so called Pointe Gourde principle). It is important that this statutory world of make-believe should be kept as near as possible to reality’.
Peter Gibson LJ said: ‘ In particular I would emphasise the necessity to adhere to reality subject only to giving full effect to the statutory hypothesis, so that the hypothetical lessor and lessee act as a prudent lessor and lessee. I would call this the principle of reality, which is, to my mind, of fundamental importance in this case.’
Schiemann LJ said: ‘The statutory hypothesis is only a mechanism for enabling one to arrive at a value for a particular hereditament for rating purposes. It does not entitle the valuer to depart from the real world further than the hypothesis compels.’
Judges:
Lawton LJ, Peter Gibson LJ, Schiemann LJ
Citations:
[1974 RVR 306, (1972) 28 PandC R 408
Statutes:
Cited by:
Cited – Roberts and Another v South Gloucestershire Council CA 7-Nov-2002
The landowner appealed against the compensation awarded for the compulsory acquisition of his land for use as a road. The owners had been compensated only for its agricultural value, but said that it should have allowed for its value for minerals . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Land
Updated: 06 May 2022; Ref: scu.421580