Coal Act 1938

Disposal of compensation as between beneficial interests

21 (1) The compensation for a holding when paid by the Commission to the person entitled to receive it from them, including any sum paid on account thereof under paragraph 19 or 20 of this Schedule, and the income thereof, shall, in order to its being applied as compensation to the persons whose interests are comprised in the holding, be held and disposed of for the benefit of those persons, or their personal representatives or assigns, in accordance with the succeeding provisions of this paragraph.

(2) In the case of a holding that consists of or comprises an estate or other interest subject to a settlement within the meaning of the Settled Land Act, 1925, or to a trust for sale the proceeds whereof are subject to a settlement by way of succession, the trustees of the settlement or any Court having jurisdiction in relation to the execution of the trusts of the settlement, and in the case of the Court on the application of any beneficiary under the settlement, may require and cause the compensation, or the part thereof attributable to that estate or other interest, as the case may be, to be laid out, invested, accumulated, and paid in such manner as, hi the judgment of the trustees or of the Court, as the case may be, will give to the beneficiaries under the settlement the like benefit therefrom as they might lawfully have had from that estate or other interest, or as near thereto as may be, regard being had to the terms of the settlement and to all relevant circumstances affecting the premises in which the holding subsisted, including—

(a) the terms of any subsisting coal-mining lease and the operation of any provision therein contained as to undergettings, short workings, and other like matters;

(b) the period within which coal being worked might have been expected to be worked out or coal not being worked might have been expected to come into working and to be worked out; and

(c) the extent to which, having regard to those circumstances, the premises ought to be regarded as property of a wasting character:

Provided that—

(i) where a payment on account of the compensation for the holding has been made under paragraph 19 of this Schedule before the vesting date, the net income accruing to the trustees before the vesting date from the investment of the sum paid, up to an amount sufficient to make good to the capital of the settlement the interest on that sum brought into account under paragraph 19 of this Schedule against the capital of the compensation, shall be set aside as capital of the settlement;

(ii) subject as aforesaid no part of the income of the compensation shall be required or caused by virtue of this sub-paragraph to be set aside as capital of the settlement.

(3) In the case of a holding that comprises an estate or other interest subject to a mortgage, the compensation (other than any part thereof that is attributable to an estate or other interest not subject to the mortgage) shall be held and disposed of in like manner as if it had been money arising under a power of sale conferred by the mortgage.

(4) In the case of a holding that could have been sold as mentioned in sub-paragraph (a) of paragraph eighteen of this Schedule under powers conferred by the Ecclesiastical Leasing Acts, the compensation paid in respect thereof and the income thereof shah be held and disposed of, and the said Acts shah have effect, in like manner as if the compensation had been money paid to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners upon a sale under the said Acts of the premises in which the holding subsisted :

Provided that—

(a) if the holding was a reversion and the rent reserved by the lease was subject, by virtue of a scheme in force under the said Acts, to a direction for the payment thereof to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for the benefit of their common fund, the direction shall have effect in relation to the 'income of the compensation as it had effect in relation to the rent; and

(b) where a payment on account of the compensation for the holding has been made under paragraph 19 of this Schedule before the vesting date, the net income accruing before the vesting date from the investment of the sum paid shall be set aside as capital of the compensation.

(5) Money representing compensation attributable to an estate or other interest subject to such a settlement or trust for sale as is mentioned in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph, or vested in trustees on or for charitable, ecclesiastical or public trusts or purposes, may, notwithstanding anything in the relevant trust instrument, be invested not only as authorised by law or by the trust instrument but also in or on—

(a) the stock or other securities of any local authority in the United Kingdom, or

(b) the stock, shares or other securities of any statutory undertakers within the meaning of section thirty-three of this Act, or

(c) the debentures or debenture stock or the preference or wholly or partially guaranteed stock or shares of any company incorporated by a special Act of, or provisional order confirmed by, or by or under a public general Act of, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, or incorporated by Royal Charter, being a company which has paid dividends upon its ordinary capital at the rate of at least three per cent. per annum for at least the five years next before the time of investment (of which fact a letter purporting to be signed by the secretary of the company or by a banker or member of a firm of bankers or by the secretary or manager of a joint stock bank or of any branch thereof shall be sufficient evidence), or

(d) the ordinary or other stock or shares of any company incorporated as aforesaid, being a company which has paid dividends upon its ordinary capital at the rate of at least four per cent. per annum for at least the ten years next before the time of investment (of which fact such a letter as aforesaid shall be sufficient evidence):

Provided that the power conferred by this sub-paragraph—

(i) shall not extend to any stocks shares or securities to bearer or subject to any liability for calls or other payments; and

(ii) shall be exercisable subject to any consent that would have been requisite if the money had been proposed to be invested as authorised by law or by the trust instrument.

(6) Subject as aforesaid the compensation for a holding and the income thereof shall be held and disposed of in such manner as to confer on the existing owners whose interests are comprised in the holding, their personal representatives or assigns, the like benefits so far as may be, as they would have had from their respective interests in the premises in which the holding subsisted if those premises had not been acquired by the Commission.