Subject_1 MINOR NON TENETUR, &c. Subject_2 SECT. III.
No privilege where the process is founded upon the predecessor's deed. - Nor where action was commenced against the defunct. - Nor where the Minor is the first provoker.
Lady Seton v. Cockburn
Date: 12 February 1548 Case No. No 33.
Found in conformity with the above.
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The Lady Seton called Al. Cockburn of Harpenden, and James Cockburn his son, of five or six years old, or thereby, to hear the heritable sasine of the lands of Harpenden, given by the said Alexander to his said son, reduced and retreated; because the said Alexander, immediately following the giving thereof, had annalzied twenty-six merks annual, out of the said lands, to the said Lady, and the Priests and College Kirk of Seton, and given them charter and precept of sasine; and, before they got sasine, great sums of money paid to him by the said Lady and Priests, “dolose infeodavit dictum suum filium in eisdem;” and so, said she, that alienation “dolo et fraude ut perfecta de jure erat retractanda. Procurator Jacobi minoris dixit eum non compellendum respondere in hac causa, ex eo quod erat super hæreditate sua, super qua ipse ætate minor annis placitare non tenetur de jure regni, nisi in quatuor casibus in Regia Majestate expressis, de quibus casibus presens non erat unus; et quod in similibus casibus, sic sæpe practicatur; et ideo petiit se absolvi ab instantia judicii usque ad perfectam ætatem.—The Lords decerned the said James to answer, notwithstanding his allegeance; because, “agebatur hic de retractatione dolose infeodationis hæreditariæ sibi per patrem suum facti, retent in manifestam fraudem dictæ Dominæ, et quod minor non deberet locupletari cum jactura alterna, et de dolo patris sui, et quod iniquum valde foret, si pretextu minoris liceret patribus sic defraudare alios, et quod suaudente equitate, in hoc casu licite possit judex a stricto illius juris municipalis regni scotiæ (de quo supra) severitate recedere, attento etiam quod jus regni prædictum deberet maxime intellegi in minoribus, qui habent suos legitimos gubernatores, non iis qui orbi parentibus possent forsan gravissime lædi, si de sua hæreditate placitare cogerentur; sed hic minor habebat patrem suum superstitem adhuc, et fraudulentum, et dolosum; et similiter suadente equitate ad exonerandam conscientiam, Jacobi quinti Domini Consilii discreverant statim post mortem suam, Reginam Mariam reddere super reductione resignationis Domini de Dalbeyt, facti per Dominum ejusdem in manibus Regis prædicti ad perpetuam remanentiam.
