Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
Ferguson v. Charles Wilson
Date: 5 July 1698
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Ferguson, merchant in Montrose, gives in a bill, representing, That he had obtained a decreet in foro against Charles Wilson, skipper in Musselburgh, for £675, and which he had twice suspended, and always suffered protestations to pass against him, whereby he had put him to near £100 Scots of expenses; and therefore craved, That, besides the protestation-money settled by law, the Lords would coerce this contentious procedure, and give him the expenses contained in his account given in, he deponing upon the verity thereof.
The Lords, without giving the bill to answer, considered, where the law has set down and determined the penalty, by specifying a particular sum, there was no latitude left for judges either to exceed or go beneath that quantity, but the statute must be precisely followed; and the Lords have no arbitrium thereupon; and for this cause the Lords refused the bill.
