Weight of Steamers : High Court Case
Page 75

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A POINT of law affecting the weights
of steam wagons was decided in a King's Bench Divisional Court (Lord Hewart and Justices du Parcq and Goddard), last Friday.
The appellant, Mr. John Macmillan, an inspector for Chester County Council, appealed against a finding of Chester Castle magistrates, refusing to hold that Messrs. A. and E. Peate, of Maesbury Hall Mlles, Oswestry, had contravened Section HI of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, by permitting the use of a four-wheeled pneumatic-tyred steam wagon which was of greater weight than Section 59 of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, 1931, allowed.
The vehicle weighed (laden) 13 tons. It was registered in September, 1931. Section 59 of the Regulations stipulates that the laden weight should not exceed 12 tons. But Section 10 of the amended provisional regulations of 1931 provides that such vehicles, when registered " on or after January 1, 1932," can transmit to the road a weight of 13 tons.
Messrs. Peate contended, a. d the magistrates agreed, that the amended provisions .included their vehicle, which, although it was registered in September, 1931, continued to be registered and was, therefore, registered on or after January 1, 1932.
The Court now held that the magistrates were wrong and that Messrs. Peate's submission could not prevail. It was true that " registered for the first time on or after January 1, 1932," did not appear in Section 10 of the amended regulations, hut it contrasted vehicles registered before and on or after January 1, 1932.