Power, - Duty, - Liability of Magistrates relative to Prisoners.
William Fullerton and David Kennedy v. The Magistrates of Ayr
Date: 7 March 1781 Case No. No 77.
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The following circumstances were found sufficient to subject the magistrates of a burgh to the payment of a debt due by a prisoner, in terms of the act of sederunt 14th June 1671, entitled, ‘An act against the magistrates of burghs for letting prisoners for debts go out of the tolbooth.’
Instead of complying with the act, by requiring the attestation of a physician upon oath, bearing that the debtor actually laboured under a disease attended with deadly symptoms, they had dismissed the debtor, upon the physician's declaring, upon soul and conscience, that the debtor's continuance in confinement might, by reason of his valetudinary state of health, prove fatal to his life; and, instead of confining the debtor in a house within the burgh, and remanding him to prison upon his recovery, they had allowed him to go through the country for the space of five months, in the exercise of his profession as a country surgeon.
It may likewise be remarked, that the magistrates had accepted a bond from the debtor's friends, securing them against the consequences of their procedure.
Lord Ordinary, Hailes.Act. Robertson.Alt. Crosbie.
Fol. Dic. v. 4. p. 136. Fac. Col. No 47. p. 85.
