The Lords refused to admit the tenor of an evident to be proved by witnesses, unless the casus amissonis were clearly proved.
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There was a poor woman called Falcon pursued one Tours, burgess of Edinburgh, to hear and see the tenor of ane liferent sasine of a land of houses, to be proved per testes insertos in the sasine, and libelled no other causam amissionis præductæ sasinæ, than that the notary of the instrument, who was called, became poor into his latter age, and for poverty was put into the hospital, and his protocal books thereafter came into the hands of the party defender; and so it was to be suspected, that he had given furth of the protocal the said minute of the instrument. It was answered, That there was no relevant cause expressed in the libel to admit the tenor of the instrument to probation; and therefore, except it was clearly understood to the Lords, et clare constaret de fortuito amissionis casu, they would in no manner of ways admit to prove the tenor; and as to the poverty of the notary, it was no cause, quia paupertas non reddebat illum suspectum qui aliquando rebus potitus fuit: And as, where they offered them to prove by witnesses inserted, quomodo constabat that they were inserted witnesses. The Lords refused to admit the reason of the summons, and thought it was a weighty matter, et res magni præjudicii et periculi plena.
