Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
- Hog, a Messenger, v. Giels Douglass
Date: 28 July 1694
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On a bill given in by Hog, a messenger, against Giels Douglass, who pursued him before the Lyon and his brethren, by the subsidiary action, for payment of a debt, because he had suffered George Campbell, the debtor, to escape; and he advocated on this reason,—That he had accepted of the caption with this express quality and condition, That he should not be obliged to break up Mr William Thomson's closet, in whose house he was alleged to lurk. To this it was answered, 1mo. This was against his oath of admission to serve the lieges faithfully, and was against the will of the letters allowing him to break up any doors in quest of the rebel. Replied, 1mo. Pactis privatorum derogatur jure publico. 2do. A messenger was fined at Privy Council for breaking up a writer's closet where his writs lay; and may be embezzled by the messenger's associates, though he should be answerable for his men. But the second answer took off his defence in totum, viz. That they offered to prove he accepted simply, without any such quality.
The Lords remitted the cause back to the Lyon Herald.
