Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL Subject_2 SUMMER SESSION.
The Commissioners of Excise in Fife v. The Creditors of Sir Alexander Bruce of Broomhall
Date: 16 June 1681
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The Commissioners of the King's Excise, in Fife, against the Creditors of Sir Alexander Bruce of Broomhall, who, for several years, had collected the said Excise; for, by the law of the kingdom, failing the Collectors, the gentlemen who, by the 14th Act of Parliament 1661, are appointed to uplift it in every shire, their estates are hypothecated and liable for the same in subsidium.
The debate was a competition of preference betwixt the said Commissioners and Broomhall's creditors, as to the right of his estate. The King's tacit hypothec in the goods of all those that uplift his revenue, making him preferable to all other creditors, was urged for the Commissioners; likeas, it could be made appear that Bromhall with the public money paid his own debts.
It was alleged for the creditors,—That they had real rights upon his lands, perfected with all the solemnities required by the laws of the kingdom; which behoved to be a security to them.——As to such creditors whose debts were contracted, or real rights perfected, after his intromission with the King's money, and his collection, they were judged to be in a less favourable case than the anterior ones. See, of the regal hypothec, Peregrinus de Jure Fisci.
