Opencast Coal Act 1958

43Provisions as to mortgaged land and other special cases

(1)For the purposes of Part II of this Act in its application to land in which there is an interest which is subject to a mortgage, a mortgagee shall not be taken to be entitled to occupy that land, or to be the person, who, but for a compulsory rights order, would be entitled to occupy it, unless—

(a)the interest which is subject to the mortgage is the interest of the person who (apart from the mortgage) is entitled to occupy that land, or who would, but for the compulsory rights order, be entitled to occupy it, and

(b)the mortgagee is, to the extent of the interest comprised in the mortgage, and subject to the rights conferred by the compulsory rights order, in possession of the land or of the rents and profits thereof.

(2)If, in the circumstances specified in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the last preceding subsection, a mortgagee is the person entitled to any annual compensation under Part II of this Act, any such compensation paid to him shall be applied by him in or towards the satisfaction of interest arising under the mortgage, and, in so far as not so applied, shall be applied towards the reduction of the principal debt secured by the mortgage.

(3)Where under subsection (2) of section thirty-two of this Act a person is entitled to compensation as the owner of any land, and his interest in that land is subject to a mortgage and the mortgagee is, to the extent of that interest, in possession of the land or of lie rents and profits thereof, the compensation shall be paid by the Board to the mortgagee, and shall be paid or applied by him as mentioned in the last preceding subsection.

(4)Where any compensation payable by the Board under this Act, not being annual compensation or compensation under section twenty-two of this Act, is payable in right of an interest in land which is subject to a mortgage.—

(a)a claim for the compensation may be made by any mortgagee of the interest, but without prejudice to the making of a claim by the person entitled to the interest; and

(b)the compensation payable in respect of the interest shall be paid by the Board to the mortgagee, or, where there is more than one mortgage, shall be payable to the first mortgagee, and, subject to the next following subsection, shall in either case be applied by him as if it were proceeds of sale.

(5)Where apart from the last preceding subsection any compensation falling within that subsection would be payable to a person as the owner of land which is subject to a mortgage, and—

(a)by virtue of the last preceding subsection that compensation is payable to a mortgagee, and

(b)by virtue of the operation in relation to that land of section twenty-four or section thirty of this Act, compensation is recoverable from him by another person,

the compensation paid to the mortgagee shall be applied by him in the first place in or towards the payment of the compensation referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, and any balance shall be applied as if it were proceeds of sale.

(6)Where any compensation falling within subsection (4) of this section is payable in right of an interest in land which is subject to a settlement, or is otherwise held in such a manner that the person entitled to that interest would not be competent to give an effective discharge for the proceeds of a sale thereof, that compensation shall be paid by the Board to the person who would be competent to give such a discharge.

(7)In this section " annual compensation " means any such compensation as is mentioned in subsection (2) of section thirty-five of this Act.

(8)In the application of this section to Scotland—

(a)for references to a mortgage, to a mortgagor and to a mortgagee there shall be substituted respectively references to a heritable security, to a debtor in a heritable security and to a heritable creditor ;

(b)for references to the first mortgagee there shall be substituted references to that heritable creditor whose security has priority over any other heritable securities secured on the same interest; and

(c)for any reference to the application of a sum as if it were proceeds of sale there shall be substituted a reference to the application of a sum as if it were the price realised on the sale by a heritable creditor of land subject to a heritable security.