Subject_1 ALIMENT. Subject_2 Of the act 1491, cap. 25. anent alimenting of Heirs. Subject_3 Import of the Act:
It is ordained, that where any lands happen to fall in ward to the King, or any baron of the realm, spiritual or temporal, or lands given in conjunct fee or liferent, as well as to burgh as to land, that the sheriff of the shire or bailies shall take surety of the person or persons, that gets or has such wards, that they shall not waste or destroy their biggings, orchards, woods, stanks, parks, meadows, or dovecots, but that they hold them in such kind as they are in the time that they receive the same; they taking their reasonable sustentation, or using, in needful things, without destruction or wasting thereof. “And an reasonable living to be given to the sustentation of the air, after the quantitie of the heritage, gif the said air has na blanche ferme, nor feu ferme land, to susteine him on, alsweil of the ward lands, that fallis to our Soveraine Lordis hands, as onie uther barronne, spiritual or temporal.”
Scots Acts, v. 1. p. 158.
Robert Doby v. the Lady of Stonyhill
Date: 18 December 1667 Case No. No 15.
The Lords declined to decide, on a demand for aliment by an heir, against his mother, where the debts which exhausted the residue of the estate were personal, and no infeftment thereon,
Click here to view a pdf copy of this documet : PDF Copy
The Lady Stonyhill being provided in liferent, to an annualrent of 2800 merks, her son pursues her for an aliment; both upon the act of Parliament, in respect that the defunct's debt was equivalent to all the rest of the estate, beside her liferent, and also super jure naturæ, as being obliged to aliment her son, he having no means, and she having a plentiful provision.
The Lords, in consideration of the newness of the case, and that the debts that might exhaust the estate, were most part personal, and no infeftment thereon, before or after the defunct's death, recommended to one of their number to endeavour to agree the parties.
