Justices of the Peace have no jurisdiction in ordinary questions of debt.
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Sheddan having obtained a decree of the Justices of the Peace for the county of Ayr, against Robertson, for payment of L. 1: 7: 1, being the balance of an account of goods, the latter brought a suspension of that decree, on the head of incompetency.
The Lord Ordinary “suspended the letters simpliciter.”
In a reclaiming petition, the charger insisted on the general practice of Justices of the Peace exercising jurisdiction in small questions of debt; on the expediency of that practice, from the simple and summary procedure in their Courts, so beneficial to the parties, in respect both of time and expense; and on the decision of 24th January 1769, Miller against Boyd, No 333. p. 7617. which was said to be the only one in point, the other determinations, relative to the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace, having occurred in cases that involved intricate discussions of law, unfit for their cognizance.
The Court, however, considered the total incompetency of Justices of the Peace to judge in any ordinary questions of debt, however small the subject of litigation might be, as a point so clear, that it did not admit of the smallest doubt; and, therefore,
The Lords refused the petition, without answers.
Lord Ordinary, Stonefield.For the Petitioner, Cathcart.
Fac. Coll. No. 138. p. 274.
