United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions

Subject_Provisional Order — Private Legislation Procedure — Compulsory Acquisition of Land by Corporation — Compensation — Method of Ascertainment — Settlement by Single Arbiter — Expenses — Power to Arbiter to Determine all Questions of and Liability for Expenses Refused — Burgh Police (Scotland) Act 1903, sec. 57. Headnote:

In this Provisional Order promoted by the Glasgow Corporation the promoters proposed to introduce a clause to the following effect:—“In all cases of disputed compensation under any of the Acts cited in section 1 of this Order, the Glasgow Police Acts and the Glasgow Sewage Acts, or any other Act or Order applicable or that may be made applicable to the city, or under any Public General Act whereby

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the corporation is entitled to acquire land compulsorily under the Lands Clauses Act s, or whereby any compensation payable by the Corporation falls to be determined under the last-mentioned Acts, it shall, unless both parties concur in the appointment of a single arbiter in terms of the last-mentioned Acts, be in the power of either party to apply to the Secretary for Scotland to appoint a single arbiter to determine the compensation to be paid, and it shall not be competent thereafter to have the same determined by arbiters, oversmen, Sheriff, or jury acting under the last-mentioned Acts. The said arbiter upon appointment shall be deemed to be a sole arbiter within the meaning of the Lands Clauses Act, and the provisions of those Acts with regard to arbitration shall apply accordingly, and the arbiter shall, notwithstanding anything in these Acts, determine all questions of expenses in the arbitration, and by whom the same shall be paid, and such determination shall be final. The remuneration of the said arbiter shall, failing agreement, be fixed by the Secretary for Scotland.”

The Glasgow Landlords Association, Limited, the Caledonian Railway Company, and the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Company appeared as objectors.

The words “or any other Act or Order applicable or that may be made applicable to the city” were struck out by agreement, the main question at issue between the parties being whether, as proposed by the promoters, the sole arbiter should be given the power “to determine all questions of expenses in the arbitration, and by whom the same shall be paid.”

The Commissioners refused to allow to the arbiter this power, and granted a section similar in its terms to section 57 of the Burgh Police Act 1993, the words of which on the question of expenses are, “And the arbiter shall, notwithstanding anything in the said Acts, determine the amount of the expenses in the arbitration, and such determination shall be final.”