Postmaster-General v Pearce (Note)

Subject Matter

POST OFFICE — Telegraphs and telephones — Lines and contrivances — Placing on land — Consent — Landowner failing to consent — “Public interest” — Whether question of fact determinable at time when arising — Failure to consent resulting in denial of telephone service to two households only — Operation of farms inefficient without telephones — Standard of proof — Whether in public interest for farms to be on telephone — Education, medicine and social intercourse — Whether public interest involved in maintaining telephonic communication in remote areas — Telegraph Act, 1878, s 4, as substituted by Railway and Canal Commission (Abolition) Act, 1949, s 2 (1) — Telegraph (Construction) Act, 1916, ss 1, 4

[1968] 2 QB 463; [1968] 3 WLR 81