2977.
"Mr. Dráhell signed a Contract by which he bound himself to sell upon notice and did not stipulate that the buyers should not have the power to withdraw their notice when given.
"It is true that although the Lands Clauses Act is silent as to the withdrawal of notice, the Courts have held that the Railway Companies have no power to withdraw a notice. But in the one case there was a voluntary Contract, and in the other a Compulsory one; and the ground of those decisions is that the Contract, although inchoate, can be reduced to certainty by the Machinery of the Act; and this explains the passage cited by the Acting Attorney General from Sugden's Vendors and Purchasers 14th ed. p. 200 to the effect that where there is power by Act of Parliament to purchase "with the usual provisions for ascertaining the value" a notice cannot be withdrawn.
All the Decisions seem based upon the same principle, viz:- that the notice coupled with the Machinery of the Act for ascertaining the value constitute a binding Contract, from which neither Party can recede.