What Effect, if the Pursuer lay open to a Ground of Compensation?
James Balfour v. Landails
1683.
November Case No. No 389.
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A Debtor by a bond pursued at the instance of an assignee, proponed compensation, upon his having alimented the cedent several years before intimation of the pursuer's right.
Alleged for the pursuer; That aliment falling under King James VI.'s act of Parliament about mens ordinaries, merchant accounts, and the like, prescribes quoad modum probandi by witnesses, unless pursued within three years after the alimenting.
Answered for the defender; That he being debtor intus habens, he needed not to pursue. And though he could not pursue after three years, and prove his libel by witnesses, yet he could prove the alimenting by way of defence prout de jure, even after the three years.
The Lords repelled the answer, and found the defence probable only scripto vel juramento of the pursuer.
