Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

Port of London Act (1806)
6.111 This 1806 Act 191 was passed to amend an Act of 1799 192 relating to
compensation payments following improvements to the Port of London. The
origins of the 1799 Act lay in the lack of shipping capacity within the Pool of
London. In 1790 the West India merchants complained about congestion and
delays in the existing docks, against a background of a doubling in ships and
tonnage using the Pool between 1750 and 1796. Accordingly the 1799 Act
authorised the building of the West India Docks on, and a new canal running
across, the Isle of Dogs. 193 The 1799 Act also contained elaborate provisions for
providing compensation out of the Consolidated Fund to those whose interests
had been adversely affected by the building of the docks and the canal.
Compensation Commissioners were appointed to operate these compensation
provisions. Nevertheless, according to the preamble to the 1806 Act, the
compensation provisions in the 1799 Act were insufficient and in need of
amendment. Accordingly the 1806 Act extended those provisions and amended
the Commissioners’ powers.
6.112 The 1806 Act has long been obsolete. The building of the West India Docks was
completed that year. The final claim for compensation pursuant to the 1799 Act
had to be lodged no later than 28 June 1810. The Commissioners themselves
finally disbanded in or abound 1824.
Westminster Society for Insurance of Lives and Survivorship and for
Granting Annuities Act (1814)
6.113 The Westminster Society for Insurance of Lives, and for Granting Annuities was
established as a life insurance office in 1792, its offices being off the Strand, near
Charing Cross. The preamble to the 1814 194 Act recorded that the Society had
experienced procedural difficulties in bringing legal proceedings in the courts. As
the law then stood, the Society’s legal proceedings had to be brought in the name
of all the Society’s subscribers and partners, rather than in the sole name of the
Society. Accordingly the 1814 Act provided that all legal proceedings concerning
the Society were to be brought, and defended, in the name of the Society’s
Secretary. The 1814 Act became obsolete when the Society was dissolved on 23
December 1863 pursuant to the Westminster Insurance Society’s Dissolution Act
1861. 195
191 46 Geo.3 c.cxxxii.
192 39 Geo.3 c.lxix (Port of London Improvement and City Canal).
193 The Isle of Dogs is situated on the north side of the Thames, opposite Greenwich.
194 54 Geo.3 c.clxxix.
195 24 & 25 Vict. c.ccxxv, s 34; The London Gazette, 20 November 1863, p 5714.
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