TURNPIKE TLUSTS. Turnpike roads are a peculiar species of highways placed by the authority of acts of par liament under the management of trus tees or commissioners, who are invested with certain powers for the construction, management, and repair of such roads.
Besides the various local acts, there are several acts of parliament called General Turnpike Acts, the provisions of which extend and apply to all existing and subsequent local acts. The subsist ing enactments upon this subject are con tained in 3 Geo. IV. c. 126, which repeals former General Turnpike Acts; 4 Geo. IV. 0. 16, c. 35,e. 95; 5 GrC0. IV. c. 69 ; 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 24; 9 Geo. IV. e. 77; 1 & 2 Wm. IV. C. 25; 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 124; 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 80 ; 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 81; and 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 18, c. 62. The General Highway Act (5 & 6 Wm. 1V. c. 10) also contains certain pro visions applicable to turnpike-roads; but, by the 113th section, does not extend to them except where expressly mentioned.
The trustees of turnpike-roads consist of persons nominated for that purpose in the Local Acts, who must be persons possessed of a certain property qualifica tion, and of the justices of peace of the county or counties through which the roads pass; but all persons who are con tractors or otherwise personally interested in the roads are disqualified from being trustees. (3 Geo. IV. c. 126, ss. GI, 62. et seq.) They are exempt from personal lability for acts done in pursuance of their powers, and may sue and be sued in the name of their clerk. (7 & 8 Geo. I V. c. 24, es. 2 & 3; 3 Geo. IV. c. 126, s. 74.) For the purpose of providing the ne cessary funds for making and maintain ing the roads under their charge, trustees are usually empowered to receive moneys by way of subscription, upon which inte rest is payable to the subscribers out of the produce of the tolls which the trus tees are by the local acts empowered to levy upon persons using the roads. Power is also given them to borrow money upon mortgage of the tolls. (3 Geo. IV. c. 126, s. 81.) The enactments of the General High way Act (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, 5. 94), relating to summary proceedings before justices to compel repairs of highways, extend the jurisdiction of the justices to turnpike officers, where the highway out of repair is part of a turnpike-road ; and while the liability to statute labour ex isted, it was exigible as well in respect of turnpike-roads as other highways; but the obligation of statute labour seems to be now entirely abolished by the re peal, in the 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 50, of the statutes under which statute labour was compounded for.
The amounts of toll exigible on any turnpike-road are regulated by the table of tolls which is contained in the local act by which the trust is constituted, and no tolls can be charged except such as are given by clear and unambiguous language in the Act; and there are vari ous cases of exceptions.
Tolls upon turnpike-roads are in most cases made payable once a day only at any one gate, and payment at one gate generally gives exemption from payment at other gates within a certain distance.
Post-horses having pinned through any gate may return toll-free before nine o'clock in the morning of the day, and when horses, having x through a gate, return the same day or within eight hours, drawing a carriage, the toll paid on the horses is to be de ducted. (3 Geo. IV. c. 126, ss. 29, 30.) The General Turnpike Acts contain various provisions regulating the weights to be allowed to carriages passing along turnpike-roads, and imposing additional tolls for overweight, and also provisions regulating the amount of toll leviable upon waggons and carts, depending upon the construction, breadth, and tare of their wheels. (3 Geo. IV. ss. 7, 9, &c.; 4 Geo. IV. c. 95, ss. 2, 5, &c.) Trustees are enabled to erect toll-gates and toll-houses, the property in which is vested in them, and are required to put up at every toll-gate a table of the tolls leviable thereat, and to provide tickets denoting payment of toll to be delivered to persons paying the same. (9 Geo. IV. e. 77, s. 3, &e ; 3 Geo. IV. c. 126, ss. 37, 60; and 4 Geo. IV. c. 95, s. 28.) The remedies for the recovery of tolls, and the penalties for evading them are contained in 3 Geo. IV. c. 126, s. 39, &c.
The trustees of every turnpike-road have power to enter into compositions for any term not exceeding a year at a time, with any person for tolls payable at any toll-gates under their manage ment. (4 Geo. IV. c. 95, s. 13.) They may also, though not empowered to do so by the local act, reduce the tolls leviable under the authority of the act, and ad vance them again to any amount not exceeding the rates authorised by the act; provided that where money has been borrowed on the credit of the tolls, no reduction shall be made without the consent of the persons entitled to five sixths of the money due. (3 Geo. IV. C. 126, ss. 43, 44.) Trustees may also farm out the tolls, though no express power be given in the local act, for any term not exceeding three years at a time. (3 Geo. IV. c. 126, ss.55, 57, 58; 4 Geo. IV. C. 95, s. 52, et seq.) The General Turnpike Acts contain numerous provisions with respect to the appointment and duties of officers, the meetings and proceedings of trustees, the making of causeways, ditches, and drains, the erection of milestones, the watering of roads, the prevention and removal of annoyances and nuisances, the marking of carriages and regulations as to drivers, the apprehension of offenders, the re covery and application of penalties, the limitation of actions, &e.; all which general enactments have been made from tune to time for the purpose of shorten ing and lessening the expense of private road bills, so that almost the only objects which now require to be attended to in the construction of road acts are the ap pointment of trustees, the number and situations of toll-gates, and the amounts of tolls.
(Wellbeloved, On Highways; Burn's Justice of the Peace, by trOyly and Williams, art. Highways (Turnpike)'.)