Investment of Com The Payment or payable in respect of any lands, or any interest therein purpensation-money. chased or taken by the company, from any corporation, tenant for life or in tail, married woman seised in her own right or entitled to dower, guardian, committee of lunatic or idiot, trustee, executor or administrator, or person having a partial or qualified interest only in such lands, and not entitled to sell or convey the same, except under the provision of the Railway Act, or the compensation to be paid for any permanent damage to any such lands amounts to or exceeds 2007., then such purchase-money or compensation must be paid into the Bank of England or Ireland, as the case may be, in the manner particularly prescribed, and the monies remain so deposited, until they can be applied to one or more of the following purposes: that is to say,— 1. In the purchase or redemption of the land-tax, or the discharge of any debt or incumbrance affecting the land in respect of which the money was paid, or affecting other lands settled therewith, to the same or the like uses, trusts, or purposes (b). 2. In the purchase of other lands, to be conveyed upon the like uses, trusts, and purposes, and in the same manner as the land stood settled, in respect of which such money shall have been paid (c). 3. If the money be paid in respect of buildings taken or injured by the railway works-in removing or replacing such buildings, or substituting others in their stead. (6) When an act of Parliament, establishing a railway company, authorized the company to purchase lands of corporations, tenants for life, &c., and directed that the purchase-money should be applied in the redemption of the land-tax upon other parts of the property unsold, it was decided that a tenant for life, who had redeemed the land-tax before the passing of the act, might reimburse himself, out of the proceeds of the lands purchased of him by the company. Ex parte Northwick, 1 Y. & Coll. 166. (c) It has been decided under a special railway act, that, where money is in court previous to being laid out 4. In payment to any party becoming absolutely entitled to such money. (8 Vict. c. 18, s. 69, post, App., 131). The act points out the mode of proceeding, by petition to the Court of Chancery, whereby the party who would have been entitled to the rents and profits of the lands may have the money applied to the above-mentioned purposes; and, until the money can be so applied, it may, upon the order of the Court, be invested in the funds in real securities, and the annual proceeds thereof be paid to the party who would for the time being have been entitled to the rents and profits of the lands. (Id., s. 70, post, App., 132). If such purchase-money or compensation exceed 207., and is less than 2007., it may be either paid into the Bank, and applied for the above-mentioned purposes, or, with the approbation of the company, may be paid to two trustees nominated in the manner prescribed, to be by them applied to the same purposes. (Id., s. 71, post, App., 132). Any sum payable as compensation, and not exceeding 201., is payable to the parties who were entitled to the rents and profits of the land; or, in case of coverture, infancy, lunacy, or other incapacity of the parties, then to their respective husbands, guardians, committees, or trustees. (Id., s. 72, post, App., 132). And all sums of money exceeding 201., payable under contracts or agreements made by the company with persons who are not absolutely entitled to the lands, must, in like manner, be paid into the Bank. in lands to be settled "to the like uses," the Court will lend its aid to an advantageous purchase beyond the amount of the money in Court, and will direct the extra costs to be paid out of the money in Court. Ex parte Newton, 4 Y. & Coll. 518. But see The statute directs, upon Ex parte Tetley, 4 Railway Cases, 55; The Payment or Investment of Compensation-money. Investment of Com The Payment or this subject, "that all sums of money payable in respect of pensation-money. the taking, using, or interfering with any lands, under a contract or agreement with any person not entitled to dispose of such lands, or of the interest therein contracted to be sold by him absolutely, for his own benefit, shall be paid into the Bank, or to trustees in manner aforesaid; and it shall not be lawful for any contracting party, not entitled as aforesaid, to retain to his own use any portion of the sums so agreed or contracted to be paid, for or in respect of the taking, using, or interfering with any such lands, or in lieu of bridges, tunnels, or other accommodation works, or for assenting to or not opposing the passing of the bill authorising the taking of such lands; but all such monies shall be deemed to have been contracted to be paid for and on account of the several parties interested in such lands, as well in possession, as in remainder, reversion, or expectancy: Provided always, that it shall be in the discretion of the Court of Chancery in England, or the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, or the said trustees, as the case may be, to allot to any tenant for life, or for any other partial or qualified estate, for his own use, a portion of the sum so paid into the Bank, or to such trustees as aforesaid, as compensation for any injury, inconvenience, or annoyance which he may be considered to sustain, independently of the actual value of the lands to be taken, and of the damage occasioned to the lands held therewith, by reason of the taking of such lands and the making of the works." (Id., s. 73, post, App., 132). And it is further enacted, that, "where any purchasemoney or compensation so paid into the Bank under the provisions of the act, shall have been paid in respect of any lease for a life or lives or years, or for a life or lives and years, or any estate in lands less than the whole fee-simple thereof, or of any reversion dependent on any such lease or The Payment or Investment of Com estate, it shall be lawful for the said Courts respectively, on the petition of any party interested in such money, to order pensation-money. that the same shall be laid out, invested, accumulated, and paid, in such manner as the Court may consider will give to the parties interested in such money the same benefit therefrom as they might lawfully have had from the lease, estate, or reversion in respect of which the money shall have been paid, or as near thereto as may be." (Id., s. 74, post, App., 133). The purchase-money or compensation, payable to the owners of lands who neglect to convey them, &c., may also, in certain cases, be paid into the Bank, as will be shewn in another place (d). The statute also contains an important provision, which requires the company to pay all the costs relating to the investment of monies paid into the Bank. It enacts, that, in all cases of monies deposited in the Bank, under the provisions of that or the special act, or any act incorporated therewith, (except where monies shall have been so deposited by reason of the wilful refusal of any party entitled thereto to receive the same, or to convey or release the lands in respect whereof the same shall be payable, or by reason of the wilful neglect of any party to make out a good title to the land required) (d), it shall be lawful for the Court of Chancery in England, or the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, to order the costs of the following matters, including therein all reasonable charges and expenses incident thereto, to be paid by the company, (that is to say), the costs of the purchase or taking of the lands, or which shall have been incurred in consequence thereof (e), other than such costs as are herein otherwise provided for, and the (d) See post, 334. (e) An act, which enabled a company to purchase and take lands for making a railway, provided that the The Payment or Investment of Com costs of the investment of such monies in government or pensation-money. real securities (g), and of the re-investment thereof in the purchase of other lands, and also the costs of obtaining the proper orders for any of the purposes aforesaid, and of the orders for the payment of the dividends (h) and interest of the securities upon which such monies shall be invested, and for the payment out of court of the principal of such monies, or of the securities whereon the same shall be invested, the purchasers; and it was held that the vendors were, under these words, entitled to be reimbursed the costs of making out their title to the land purchased by the company. Ex parte Feoffees of Addie's Charity, 3 Hare, 22; 3 Railway Cases, 119. (g) The brokers' commission on the purchase of stock is a part of the costs of the investment, which must be borne by the company. Ex parte the Corporation of Trinity House, 3 Hare, 95. In some of the earlier special acts, the costs of the interim investment were not provided for. Ex parte Hirst, 4 Y. & Coll. 468; Ex parte Taylor, 1 Y. & Coll. 229; Ex parte Cooke, 3 Railway Cases, 137. But where the Court had power to order the expenses" of all purchases" made in pursuance of the act, it was decided that the costs of the investment were included. Ex parte the Bishop of Durham, 3 Y. & Col. 690. See also Ex parte Onslow, 1 Y. & Coll. 553; Ex parte Northwick, 1 Y. & Coll. 166; Ex parte Trafford, 2 Y. & Coll. 522; Ex parte Gardiner, 3 Railway Cases, 117; In re Great Western Railway Company, 1 Phillips, 560; Ex parte Cresswell, 10 Jur. 86. A statute contained a provision that the expenses of re-investment, &c. should be paid by the company; and, in a subsequent part of the statute, the Lords of the Treasury were empowered to purchase certain quays within a limited time; but no express directions were given as to the reinvestment of the purchase-monies, or as to the payment of the expenses. By a subsequent act, the time given to the Lords of the Treasury for purchasing the quays was extended, and it was enacted, that all the powers, provisions, regulations, directions, clauses, matters, and things in the former act, should extend to the subsequent act. It was held on appeal, (affirming the decision of the ViceChancellor), that the clauses in the former act, as to the reinvesting of purchase-monies and the payment of the expenses of such reinvestment, were applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the subsequent act. In re the Lords of the Treasury, 1 My. & C. 676; Ex parte Marshall, 4 Railway Cases, 58. (h) Semble, that these words do not extend to make the company liable to the costs of the payment of the dividends. Ex parte Athorpe, 3 Y. & Coll. 396; Mitchell v. Newell, 3 Railway Cases, 515. |
