[1777] Mor 9
Subject_1 TEINDS.
Date: Patrick Rigg of Downfield,
v.
The Officers of State
9 July 1777
Case No.No. 3.
Although a proprietor had paid a high price for a lease long current at a low rent, the valuation was notwithstanding taken at the real value, not at the rent.
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The Court had valued the rent, stock, and teind of the lands of Downfield, &c. belonging to Mr. Rigg, in the parish of Kettle, at £100 Sterling, and the and the fifth part thereof was declared to be teind, &c.
Mr. Rigg presented a reclaiming petition against this interlocutor, setting furth that the late Dr. Rigg his father, had let these lands to William Hunter for 38 years, from Whitsunday 1758, at the rent of £67. 19s. 1d.;—that at a judicial sale of William Hunter's subjects, he had purchased this tack at £200 Sterling, and had since let the lands at £100 of yearly rent; but as this rent was no more than an equivalent for the money paid, for the purchase of the lease, and as Hunter's tack did not expire till 1796, it is in every respect the current lease; and if it had been purchased by any third party, there can be no doubt that it must have been the rule for fixing the teind ;—and that it is certainly the same to the titular, whether that tack was purchased by the proprietor, or by a third party.
Answered, That when a landlord purchases a lease from his tenant, it is to all intents and purposes extinguished and discharged. No person can at the same time be both master and tenant. Mr. Rigg had not even attempted this; as instead of assigning the former tack, he had let the land as proprietor, to new tenants, for different rents, and for different periods of years. Supposing that Mr. Rigg, after having purchased Hunter's tack, had let these lands for a lower rent, and was insisting in a valuation according to the new rent, the Crown would never be entitled to plead that the old lease is still unexpired, that it is still the current lease, and that the proprietor is but in fact his own tenant.
The Court having advised the petition with answers, adhered to their former interlocutor, valuing the lands at their present value.
Act, R. Blair. Alt, J. Swinton.
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