Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
Robert Murdoch v. Hyslop
Date: 25 December 1696
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In the mutual declarators pursued betwixt Robert Murdoch, writer, and one Hyslop, a wright, of the property of a piece void ground, lying beneath the piazzas, on the High Street of Edinburgh; the one claiming it as pertaining to his shop, and the other claiming it in right of his adjacent cellar; the Lords, after balancing the pretences of both parties, found neither of them had a right of property in this inconsiderable controverted piece of ground, but that it was usus communis, being a locus publicus, and a highway, and passage to all the lieges, as much as the High Street and causeway is; and appointed for people retiring to shelter under them in time of rain, as the ground under fore stairs is, and ought not to be enhanced or built up to the prejudice of the public convenience. So both the contenders lost the cause, and the Town, who were not competing, gained it.
