Railways Act 1993

149 Service of documents

(1) Any document required or authorised by virtue of this Act to be served (whether the expression “serve” or the expression “give” or “send” or any other expression is used) on any person may be served—

(a) by delivering it to him or by leaving it at his proper address or by sending it by post to him at that address; or

(b) if the person is a body corporate, by serving it in accordance with paragraph (a) above on the secretary of that body; or

(c) if the person is a partnership, by serving it in accordance with paragraph (a) above on a partner or a person having the control or management of the partnership business.

(2) For the purposes of this section and section 7 of the [1978 c. 30.] Interpretation Act 1978 (which relates to the service of documents by post) in its application to this section, the proper address of any person on whom a document is to be served shall be his last known address, except that—

(a) in the case of service on a body corporate or its secretary, it shall be the address of the registered or principal office of the body;

(b) in the case of service on a partnership or a partner or a person having the control or management of a partnership business, it shall be the address of the principal office of the partnership;

and for the purposes of this subsection the principal office of a company constituted under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or of a partnership carrying on business outside the United Kingdom is its principal office within the United Kingdom.

(3) If a person to be served by virtue of this Act with any document by another has specified to that other an address within the United Kingdom other than his proper address (as determined in pursuance of subsection (2) above) as the one at which he or someone on his behalf will accept documents of the same description as that document, then, in relation to that document, that address shall be treated as his proper address for the purposes of this section and for the purposes of the said section 7 in its application to this section, instead of that determined in accordance with subsection (2) above.

(4) This section shall not apply to any document in relation to the service of which provision is made by rules of court.

(5) In this section—

• “local authority” includes a metropolitan county passenger transport authority;

• “secretary”, in relation to a local authority, means the proper officer within the meaning of the [1972 c. 70.] Local Government Act 1972 or (in relation to a local authority in Scotland) the [1973 c. 65.] Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973;

• “serve” shall be construed in accordance with subsection (1) above.