Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1 PRESUMPTION.
Subject_2 DIVISION XII.

Presumption, rite et solenniter actum.

Walter Ruddiman, Printer in Edinburgh,
v.
The Governors of the Merchant Maiden-Hospital in Edinburgh

Date: 9 March 1756
Case No. No 292.

The granter of a deed, having been buried four days after its date, the deed was presumed to have been executed on deathbed, unless the person who founded on it could prove liegie poustie.

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Upon the 21st of October 1689 Thomas Young granted bond for 4000 merks to his mother Alison Elliot. This bond proceeds on a narrative of onerous causes.

Ruddiman acquired right by progress to this bond; and in the 1742 insisted in an action for payment against the Hospital, who had succeeded to the estate of Thomas Young in virtue of a gratuitous disposition from one of his representatives.

Various defences offered for the Hospital were repelled on the 25th of June and the 30th July 1746. It was now objected for the Hospital, That it appeared by the register of burials in Edinburgh, that Thomas Young was buried on the 25th of October 1689, being the fourth day from the date of the bond; that therefore the bond must be presumed post tantum temporis to have been granted on deathbed, unless the pursuer remove this presumption, by proving that Thomas Young was in health when when he granted the bond, or that he died suddenly, or of a violent death.

‘The Lords found, That it is to be presumed that the bond was granted by Thomas Young on deathbed; and therefore that it cannot affect the defenders, unless it is proved, that he was in leigie poustie at granting the same, or that the onerous cause of the bond be instructed.

Act. Ferguson. Alt. J. Craigie. Reporter Justice Clerk. Clerk Gibson. Fol. Dic. v. 4. p. 128. Fac. Col. No 191. p. 299.