MORLEY (INSPECTOR OF TAXES) Vs. TATTERSALL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The following statement of facts is taken from the judgment of Greene M.R. : "This is an appeal by Messrs. Tattersall, the well-knowm firm of blood-stock autioneers, against a decision of LAWRENCE, J., who reversed a decision of the Special Comminssionents. The appeal before the Commissioners related to two assessments, one for the year ending April 5, 1930, and the other for the year ending April 5, 1936. The Special Commissioners decided againstthe Crown on both those assessments. The Crown did not contest the correctness of that decision with regard tothe earlier assessment and accordingly that matter does not fall for consideration, and the only asssessment with which we have to deal is an additional assessment for the year ending April 5, 1936. In that assessment there was included what has been described as a token sum which is inserted for the purpose of bringing into charge certain sums described as unclaimed balances. In order to understand exactly what that means it is necessary to refer shortly to the nature of the business carried on by Messrs. Tattersall. They are auctioneers who carry on business at London, Newmarket and Doncaster. They also have a training establishment, but that does not come into this picture because the profits of that business are separately assessed. We are only concerned with the auctioneers business. The main income of the auctioneers business consisted, of cource, of commissions, but they received on behalf of clients who sold their animals through them the purchase price paid by the purchasers, and from that purchase price they deducted their commission and any other expenses which they were entitled to deduct.

(2.) "The terms on which they conducted sales, and still conduct them, are constained in certain condition, and the only condition to which I need refer is the sevents condition : The vendor shall be entitled to receive the purchase-money of each lot sold on the Monday week following the sale, provided that the auctioneers shall then have received the purchase- money, or delivered the lot out of their custody, but not before. Delivery of a lot by the owner or his agent without a written order from the auctioneers shall not be deemed delivery by the acutioneers within the meaning of this condition, and at the foot of the printed conditions, set out in heavy type, appear these words : No money paid, or remittance sent by post, without a written order.

(3.) "It appears that on a number of occasions, and in fact with comparative frequency, the vandors of the bloodstock animals which have been sold by Messrs. Tattersall do not immediately call for payment of their money. Various reasons were suggested for that in evidence, but the only finding of the Commissioners on that matter is set out in paragraph 5 of the stated case : For various reasions vendors have from time to time neglected to send a written order to the firm for payment over to them of purchase money received on their behalf by the firm on the sale of horses, and consequently moneys (hereinafter called unclaimed balances) have remained in the hands of the firm to the credit of the said vendors." Mr. E. S. Tattersall in evidence said that in his view there might be various reasions; amongst others, clients in some cases liked to keep a balance due to them with the firm. Whatever the reasons may be, we have no finding with regard to them, with regard either to any specific balance, or to any mass of balances, and, therefore, the only matter with which we are concerned is the fact that balances have not been claimed, Many of those balances have remained unclaimed for a considerable number of years, but the learned Solicitor-General quite properly admitted that the vendors in question were entitled to claim payment of their money at any time, unaffected by the Statute of Limitations, which has not yet begun to run owing to the absence of any written order as required by the conditions. We are dealing, therefore, with obligations which, as a matter of law, are existing obligations which the firm can be called upon to perform at any moment. That is a matter not without importance in the examination of this case.