Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1 MANDATE.

Laing
v.
The Lord Chief Baron

Date: 15 November 1753
Case No. No. 4.

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Mandatary, though he go beyond or even counteract the terms of his commission, has good action in equity for his expenses if he acted profitably for his employer; and therefore Laing the wright being employed by Lord Chief Baron Idle to repair his house at Dairy, but expressly cautioned to preserve the old ceiling (which was of stucco) of one of the rooms, otherwise not to meddle with the house, having notwithstanding taken off the whole roof, and given the house a new roof, whereby the cieling of that room was of consequence destroyed;—having brought his action for payment of his account, and on a joint proof allowed by the Court, having proven that the old roof, the cupples, as well as floors, were rotten and insufficient, and that without a very great expense and unprofitable to his employer, who was then in England, the cieling could not have been preserved;—the Court found him entitled to payment of his account. The interlocutor was afterwards stopped on a reclaiming bill not yet advised, but it is chiefly on the question, whether the taking off the whole roof was necessary or profitable?