Subject_1 HERITABLE and MOVEABLE. Subject_2 SECT. VIII.
Incorporate Stock.
Sir John Dalrymple of Cowsland v. The Representatives of Dame Jean Halket
Date: 1 July 1735 Case No. No 48.
Found, that the shares of the Bank of Scotland are not heritable, but simply moveable, and fall under the jus mariti.
Click here to view a pdf copy of this documet : PDF Copy
Ten shares of the Old Bank of Scotland having accrued to a lady during her marriage, the question arose after her decease, whether they belonged to her heirs, executors, or husband. It was generally agreed that the executors had no claim; if the subject was moveable before the act 1661, cap. 32. it behoved to go to the husband; if heritable it continued so, for no alternative was introduced with respect to any heritable subject, save bonds bearing annualrent allenarly. But for the heir it was pleaded, That bank-stock is a right, having tractum futuri temporis; the original subscription paid in is sunk into the company's stock, belongs to the company as a public body, and by no means to any of the partners; the subscriber is entitled to his proportion of the yearly dividends, and that in perpetuum; but as these profits are not accessory to any stock or capital belonging to the partner, it is that very thing that makes bank-stock fall under the definition of a right having tractum futuri temporis.—Answered for the husband, Though the money paid in be sunk into the company's stock, yet there is thereby purchased a jus crediti, which is the partner's stock, just as in the case of money lent, the property of which is transferred to the borrower; and all the creditor has is the jus crediti, evidenced by the bond, of which the annualrents yearly arising are accessories. The profits, therefore, arising upon bank-stock are proper accessories of a principal subject, and consequently, bank-stock is nothing a-kin to a right having tractum futuri temporis.—— The Lords found, That the shares of the Bank of Scotland are not heritable, but that they are simply moveable, and fall under the jus mariti. See Appendix.
