Scottish Court of Session Decisions

The following special case was stated on this appeal;—“At a Registration Court for the burgh of Tain, held by me at Tain on the 1st day of October 1868, under and in virtue of the Act of Parliament 31 and 32 Vict., cap. 48, intituled ‘The Representation of the People ( Scotland) Act, 1868,’ and the other Statutes therein recited, Alexander Forbes, solicitor in Tain, a voter on the roll, objected to Hugh Ross, labourer, Tain, being continued on the roll as a voter for the said burgh.

The said Hugh Ross stood in the assessor's list of persons entitled to be registered as voters for the burgh as owner and occupant of dwelling-house, Academy Street.

It was objected by the said Alexander Forbes that the said Hugh Ross was disqualified, in respect of exemption from poor-rates on the ground of inability to pay, and in respect of failure to pay all poor-rates that had become due by him up to the 15th of May last

The following facts were proved:—(1) That the said Hugh Ross was exempted in the year 1858 from the rate then assessed upon him as occupant of the said house in respect of poverty, and that he had not, since 1858, been assessed as occupant. (2) That the rate so assessed upon him in 1858 had never been paid, but was considered by the parochial board as passed from, and not due by Ross, in respect of his exemption in 1858. (3) That in 1858, and every subsequent year, Ross had been regularly assessed for poor-rates as owner of the said house, and had regularly paid his rates.

I repelled the objection, and continued the name of the said Hugh Ross on the roll. Whereupon the said Alexander Forbes required from me a special case for the Court of Appeal; and in compliance therewith I have granted this case.

The questions of law for the decision of the Court of Appeal are:—(1) Whether, in the circumstances above set forth, Ross is to be held as disqualified under the proviso in section 3 of the Representation of the People (Scotland) Act, requiring payment by the voter of all poor-rates that have become due by him up to 15th May in any given year. (2) Whether Ross is to be held as disqualified under the proviso in the said section, rendering it a condition of the right to the franchise that the voter shall not, during the period of twelve months preceding 1st August in the present year, have been exempted from payment of poor-rates on the ground of inability to pay.”

Mackintosh, for the appellant, submitted that as this party had been exempted from poor-rates on the ground of inability to pay, he was disqualified, because that exemption had subsisted from 1858 downwards.

The Court unanimously affirmed the judgment of the Sheriff.