is a

UK constitutional law The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but princ ...

case, concerning

parliamentary sovereignty Parliamentary sovereignty, also called parliamentary supremacy or legislative supremacy, is a concept in the constitutional law of some parliamentary democracies. It holds that the legislative body has absolute sovereignty and is supreme over al ...

Facts

Pickin claimed that the

British Railways Board British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English ...

fraudulently misled Parliament when it passed a private Act of 1968, which abolished a rule that if a railway line were abandoned, the land would vest in the owners of the adjoining land. This rule came from Private Acts of 1836 and 1845. Pickin had bought a small piece of land adjoining the railway line in 1969, the

Clevedon Clevedon (, ) is an English seaside town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, part of the ceremonial county of Somerset. It recorded a parish population of 21,281 in the United Kingdom Census 2011, estimated at 21,442 ...

Yatton Yatton is a village and civil parish within the unitary authority of North Somerset, which falls within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located south-west of Bristol. Its population in 2011 was 7,552. The parish includes Clave ...

branch line in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

. When the railway closed, he claimed he was entitled to strip of the old line. He argued the Board did not comply with standing orders of each House of Parliament that required individual notice to be given to owners affected by private legislation.

Judgment

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal held there was a triable issue. Lord Denning MR said the following: Edmund-Davies LJ and Stephenson LJ agreed.

House of Lords

The House of Lords held there was no power to disregard an Act of Parliament, public or private, or examine proceedings in Parliament to decide whether the Act was obtained by irregularity or fraud. It followed that Pickin could not claim that the British Railways Board had fraudulently misled Parliament, so as to vitiate an Act. This reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeal. Lord Morris said the following. UKHL 1
[1974">974
UKHL 1
[1974AC 765, 789-90

Notes

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References