| Pickin v British Railways Board | |
| Court: | House of Lords |
| Citations: | [1974] UKHL 1, [1974] AC 765 |
| Keywords: | Parliamentary sovereignty |
Pickin v British Railways Board. 1974. UKHL. 1. is a UK constitutional law case, concerning parliamentary sovereignty.
Pickin claimed that the British Railways Board fraudulently misled Parliament when it passed a private Act, the British Railways Act 1968 (c. xxxiv), which abolished a pre-1845 provision which stated that if a railway line were abandoned, the land would vest in the owners of the adjoining land. This provision, in this specific case, came from section 259 of the Bristol and Exeter Railway Act 1836 (6 & 7 Will. 4. c. xxxvi). Pickin was interested in ownership of the railways and so to test the board's right in court, they took advantage of and bought a small piece of land adjoining the railway line in 1969, the Clevedon-Yatton branch line in Somerset. 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.
The Court of Appeal held there was a triable issue. Lord Denning MR said the following:
Edmund-Davies LJ and Stephenson LJ agreed.
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.[1]