Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
The Earl of Panmuir v. Sir Patrick Hepburn and Sir John Hall
Date: 26 July 1694
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The Lords advised the debate betwixt the Earl of Panmuir, and Sir Patrick Hepburn, and Sir John Hall, for payment of the feu-duties of the lands of Auchmethie; against which compensation was proponed, that, by a charter, the feuduty was converted into ten shillings Scots for each boll of corn, or the bolls themselves, in the option of the solventes; and yet they had exacted the full; and so, condictione indebiti, ought to repeat.
Answered,—1mo. There was a decreet of Exchequer, decerning them to pay, to which the Lords were not competent judges; but it behoved to be reduced before that sovereign court. 2do. The conversion was illegal, being before the act of dissolution.
The Lords debated long, whether the compensation met, and was liquid; and if they had right and interest to propone it; and, anent the reservation in the decreet of Exchequer to the Lords of Session, to cognosce on the validity of the charters converting the feu-duty. But at last, before answer, ordained the original charters, given to the Guthries of Auchmethie, where the said conversion is first made, to be produced.
