GUEST LOSES ITS APPEAL ON TAILBOARD CARRYING LOAD
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FURNITURE van which was reconstructed so that its tailboad could be let down and used to carry furniture, was being used contrary to Construction and Use Regulations, the Queen's Bench Divisional Court decided on Monday.
It dismissed with costs an appeal by Guest Scottish Carriers Ltd. and its driver James Robert William Dennett, against conviction by magistrates at Tottenham.
The company was fined £5 for allowing the vehicle to be used with excessive overhang, and Dennett was conditionally discharged for having driven the van with excessive overhang.
Mr. K. Schiemaim, for the appellants, said the case turned on an interpretation of the regulations, in particular as to whether, in measuring overhang of a vehicle, one was permitted to include the length of the tailboard when down and laden. If the answer was no, then the appellants would succeed.
"This case is of considerable importance to porters and carriers. My clients have travelled with tailboards down and laden for a number of years. A large number of prosecutions depend on the outcome of this appeal", said Counsel.
Lord Parker (the Lord Chief Justice), sitting with Mr. Justice Widgery and Mr. Justice Geoffrey Lane, said the 5-f-ton furniture van had its tailboard down and two wardrobes were on it. The permitted overhang of this vehicle was just over ten feet, but the tailboard exceeded this by 4 ft. 3 ins. when let down.
The case had given the Court considerable difficulty in regard to overall length and overhang. The effect of the regulations and the amendments in 1964 was that a tailboard which was designed and constructed (or reconstructed) to increase the carrying capacity of the vehicle should be treated as part of the vehicle when down for the purposes of overall length, unless it was a tailboard which was only designed to be let down while the vehicle was being loaded or unloaded.
Lord Parker said that clearly the tailboard on this van had been reconstructedto increase its carrying capacity. In those circumstances, despite able argument by counsel over confusion of definition of overall length and of overhang, the Court considered that the justices were right in the conclusions they reached. • Mr. Schiemann submitted that a point of public interest was involved, and asked for leave to appeal to the House of Lords. Lord Parker said the Court had sympathy with the application, and gave counsel a few days in which to draft points of law upon which he wished to appeal.
EAST YORKS POSTPONE
EAST YORKSHIRE Motor Services has postponed an application to increase fares which was to have been made to the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners on June 27 and a new date is to be arranged.