Subject_1 ALIMENT. Subject_2 ALIMENT due ex debito naturali.
Agnes Paterson v. Alexander Speirs
Date: 29 November 1782 Case No. No 78.
To a male bastard child, an aliment of of L. 100 Scots per annum till he arrive at seven years of age, is ordered to be paid by his father, a man of considerable estate.
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Agnes Paterson, a woman of low rank, having brought an action against Speirs, who was possessed of a considerable estate, for aliment of a natural child of the male sex, of, whom he was the father, the Lord Ordinary pronounced two interlocutors, one of them respecting the quantum, and the other concerning the duration of the aliment.
The first was as follows:
“The Lord Ordinary, as to the aliment of the defender's natural son, in the circumstances of this case, is of opinion, That the precedent established by the Court, 27th January 1779, in the question of aliment of the natural children of James Kincaid of Auchinreoch, (not reported) ought to be followed; therefore modifies the aliment of said natural child of the defender's to L. 100 Scots yearly.’
In this judgment both parties acquiesced.
With respect to the endurance of the aliment, the Lord Ordinary ‘found the defender only liable in payment to the pursuer of the aliment awarded, till such time as the child in question arrives at the age of seven years.’
The pursuer reclaimed to the Court against this interlocutor; when it was
Observed on the Bench: There is no established general rule for determining cases of this nature; which are always to be regulated according to their peculiar circumstances; and therefore, though in the case of Flint and Glendinning, No 77. supra, the continuance of the payment for aliment, fought by the mother, was protracted to ten years, the child being a female; yet, in the present, which respects the aliment of a boy, seven years appear a more proper period.
The Lords therefore adhered to the interlocutor of the Lord Ordinary.
N. B. The Lord Ordinary's interlocutor contained this ratio decidendi, ‘In respect, from the nature of the business carried on by the father, the defender, being that of bleaching, drying, and dressing of cloth, the child in question will be fit for being employed in certain branches of it by the time he arrives at the age of seven years.’ It is however to be remarked, that the Court disapproved of this observation as a ground of decision; and that therefore it had no influence whatever on their judgment.
Lord Ordinary, Westhall.Act. J. Boswell.Alt. Ilay Campbell.Clerk, Menzies.
Fol. Dic. v. 3. p. 25. Fac. Col. No 72. p. 111.
