“…in the field of valuation the experience of the valuer and his ability to form a sound commercial judgement is of overriding importance. The process of valuation cannot be reduced to the application of a set of abstract formulae.”
Maguire J in McNamee v RC [1954]
“In the result the translation of value into price (by the estate duty legislation) has brought about this strange formula which has aptly been described by various judges as an imaginary sale to a hypothetical purchaser in a hypothetical open market.”
Viscount Simon in Gold Coast Selection Trust Ltd v Humphrey [1948]
“If the asset is difficult to value but is nonetheless of a money value, the best valuation possible must be made. Valuation is an art, not an exact science. Mathematical certainty is not demanded, nor indeed is it possible.”
Lord MacMillan in Robinson Brothers Brewers v Houghton & Chester-le-Street Assessment Committee [1935]
“The motives which activate buyers in a market may be of all kinds but it is not their motives but their bids which matter.”
Lady Windermere’s Fan – Oscar Wilde [1891]
Ceeil Graham: “What is a cynic?”
Lord Darlington: “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”