Coal Act 1938

PART IV Payment and disposal op Compensation

Ascertainment of person entitled

18 For the purposes of any provision of this Act under which a payment is to be made at any date to the person entitled to the compensation for a holding, that person shall be ascertained as follows :—

(a) if the holding could at the valuation date have been sold and conveyed to a purchaser in such manner as to bind or over-reach all acquired interests comprised in the holding (either in the actual circumstances or if any requisite consent, approval, request or notice had been received or given) either—

(i) by, or by the direction of, a single person in whom the whole beneficial interest comprised in the holding was vested,

(ii) under the powers conferred by the [15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 18.] Settled Land Act, 1925, or under any additional powers conferred by a settlement, or

(iii) by trustees for sale, or

(iv) by a personal representative in the exercise of his paramount powers, or

(v) under powers conferred by any other enactment,

the person who could have given a valid discharge for the purchase money arising on such a sale if paid on the date in question shah be the person entitled;

(b) in a case in which the preceding sub-paragraph would have applied but for the subsistence at the valuation date of a mortgage not capable of being over-reached as therein mentioned, then, if the mortgage has been discharged before the date in question, the person who would have been entitled if the preceding sub-paragraph had applied shall be the person entitled, and, if the mortgage is still subsisting at that date, then—

(i) except in a case in which at the valuation date the mortgagee or a receiver appointed by him was in possession, or in receipt of the income, of the mortgaged premises, the Commission may serve notice in writing on the mortgagee that they propose to act under this provision, and, if within one month after service of the notice, the mortgagee does not give notice in writing to the Commission that he objects to their so acting, the person who would have been entitled if the preceding sub-paragraph had applied shall be the person entitled;

(ii) in the excepted case aforesaid, and in a case in which the Commission do not think fit to serve notice as aforesaid or a mortgagee served with such a notice gives notice of objection as aforesaid, the mortgagee shall be the person entitled;

(c) in any other case, and also in any such case as aforesaid if the Commission consider it expedient in order to avoid expense or delay or for any special reason, the Commission may make payment to the proper officer of the Supreme Court or, in a case where the sum to be paid does not exceed five hundred pounds, of the county court, in accordance with rules of court, or to trustees appointed by the Commission, and that officer or the trustees, as the case may be, shall be the person entitled.

Payments on account

19 (1) At any time before the vesting date, or after that date but before the relevant certificates have become conclusive under paragraph 17 of this Schedule, the Commission, if they are satisfied that the compensation for any holding, or the aggregate of the compensation for a number of holdings to which the same person is entitled, will be not less than a particular amount, may make payment of such sum not exceeding that amount as they may think fit on account of the compensation for the holding or holdings :

Provided that no payment on account shall be made under this paragraph, except with the consent of the person entitled, either—

(a) before the first day of January nineteen hundred and forty; or

(b) unless the Commission have given to the person entitled not less than three months' notice in writing of their intention to make the payment.

(2) A payment on account made under this paragraph to the person entitled to the compensation for more than one holding shall be deemed to have been paid on account of the compensation for such of those holdings as the Commission may direct when making the payment, or, if no such direction is given, on account of the compensation for each of them rateably in proportion to the amount thereof.

(3) A payment on account made under this paragraph before the vesting date, together with interest thereon for the period between the date on which the payment is made and the vesting date at the rate of three pounds per cent. per annum less income tax at the standard rate, shall be treated in account as a payment on account of the capital of the compensation made on the vesting date, and the said interest shall be deemed for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts to be paid on each anniversary of the date of the payment on account that occurs before the vesting date and on the vesting date and accordingly shall be treated as a proper deduction from income.

(4) A payment on account made under this paragraph after the vesting date shall be treated in account as a payment made primarily in or towards discharge of any interest on the compensation that is due at the date of the payment, and the residue thereof, if any, shall be treated in account as a payment on account of the capital of the compensation.

20 (1) If in the case of any valuation region the relevant certificates have not become conclusive under paragraph 17 of this Schedule at the vesting date, the claimant or any person intervening in respect of a holding in the region for which compensation is to be payable may require the Commission to make, at the expiration of each quarter thereafter until the certificates become conclusive, a payment on account under the last preceding paragraph of an amount not less than that specified in this paragraph, and, as from the date of any such requirement, the Commission shall be liable to make payments to the person entitled to the compensation for the holding accordingly.

(2) The amount of a quarterly payment that may be required as aforesaid shall be an amount equal to interest for three months at the rate mentioned in subsection (8) of section seven of this Act on three-quarters of either—

(a) the draft valuation of the holding settled under subparagraph (3) of paragraph 11 of this Schedule, if at the date of the payment that draft has been settled but the certificate relating to the holding has not been sent to the Commission; or

(b) the amount certified, if the certificate has been so sent at that date:

Provided that, if before the beginning of any quarter at the expiration of which a quarterly payment becomes due any payment on account has been made in respect of the holding under the last preceding paragraph otherwise than by way of quarterly payment required as aforesaid, the amount of the quarterly payment shall be reduced by an amount equal to interest for three months at the rate aforesaid on the amount of the said payment on account.

(3) In the case of a holding consisting of a reversion, if at a date on which a quarterly payment becomes due the draft valuation of the holding has not been settled, the amount of that payment shall be an amount equal to one-eighth of—

(a) the rent which became payable to the person entitled to the reversion immediately expectant on the lease, in respect of coal, mines of coal and acquired property and rights comprised therein, during the year ending on the vesting date (or, in the case of a lease that has expired before the vesting date, during the last year of its subsistence), less

(b) the mineral rights duty and royalties welfare levy payable or allowable by that person in respect of that rent;

so however that that amount shall be subject to the reduction mentioned in the proviso to the last preceding sub-paragraph in the case therein mentioned :

Provided that, in a case in which there is reasonable ground for apprehending that, if a payment of the amount so ascertained were made, the aggregate of that payment and of any other payment on account theretofore made might exceed the aggregate of the compensation for the holding and the interest thereon, the Commission may withhold that payment.

(4) In a case in which the proviso to the last preceding sub-paragraph has effect and in a case of a holding other than a reversion, if at a date on which a quarterly payment becomes due the draft valuation of the holding has not been settled, that payment shall be deferred until the draft has been settled and the amount thereof shall be ascertained under sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph.

(5) In this paragraph—

(a) the expression " quarter " means a period of three months beginning on the first day of July, October, January or April;

(b) the references to rent payable to the person entitled to a reversion and to mineral rights duty and royalties welfare levy payable or allowable by that person shall, in their application to a leasehold reversion, be construed as references respectively to the rent which that person was entitled to receive from his lessee less the rent which he was liable to pay to his lessor, and to the duty and levy which he was liable to pay or allow less so much thereof as he was entitled to deduct from the rent payable to his lessor.

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.

Costs of payment and disposal

22 (1) Subject to the provisions of this paragraph and of section thirty-nine of this Act, the Commission shall pay the costs reasonably incurred by any person having an acquired interest that is comprised in a holding or a successor in title of his—

(a) in connection with the ascertainment of the person entitled to the compensation for the holding; and

(b) in a case in which the compensation for the holding is paid into court under sub-paragraph (c) of paragraph 18 of this Schedule, in connection with the investment and re-investment of the sums paid and of obtaining orders for that purpose, of obtaining orders for the payment of the interest on the investments made, and of obtaining orders for the payment out of court of the sums paid or of the investments thereof; or

(c) in a case in which the compensation is paid otherwise than as aforesaid, in connection with any application to the Court that may be requisite for the purpose of determining the manner in which the compensation ought to be held and disposed of.

(2) The Commission shall not be liable to pay under this paragraph any costs incurred by a person who or whose predecessor in title has neglected to furnish to the Commission information, relevant to the ascertainment of the person entitled to the compensation for the holding, that he is required by this Schedule, or has been reasonably required by the Commission, to furnish to them.

The High Court shall have power, on the application of a person aggrieved by a denial on the part of the Commission by virtue of this sub-paragraph of liability to pay any such costs as aforesaid, to give such directions as to the matter in question as appear to the Court to be just.

(3) In case of difference as to the amount of any costs, other than costs of Court proceedings, that the Commission are liable under this paragraph to pay, the Board of Trade may direct in what manner they are to be taxed.