Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL. Subject_2 I sat this week in the Outer-House, and so the observe are fewer.
Andrew Hay and Hay of Alderston v. Patrick Aikenhead
Date: 16 July 1701
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Mr Andrew Hay, and Hay of Alderston, his factor, pursue Patrick Aikenhead, son to Sir Patrick Aikenhead, commissary-clerk of Edinburgh, for payment of a balance of an account in his father's hands, as factor for the said Mi-Andrew, before the Sheriff; and he having decerned, they suspend on this reason, That he, contrary to law, had sustained scrolls, missive letters, and unsubscribed accounts to be probative; whereas, by the 5th Act of Parliament 1681, even writs subscribed are not probative, unless they contain the writer's name and witnesses', with their designations; and far less can they make a debtor liable for annualrent; as was decided 2d January 1678, M'Lurg against The Earl of Dalhousie.
Answered,—The Sheriff committed no iniquity; for he sustained them only with this quality—The accounts and missives being proven to be all written with the said Sir Patrick Aikenhead's own hand-writ; which was accordingly done.
The Lords repelled the reason of suspension, and sustained the Sheriff's decreet.
