George Kincaid v. Alexander Glen and Co, and William Glen.
Date: 15 June 1798 Case No. No 249.
A maritime cause cannot be removed by suspension from the High Court of Admiralty to the Court of Session, until a final decree has been pronounced.
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George Kincaid brought an action for freight before the High Court of Admiralty, against Alexander Glen and Company, and William Glen.
The Judge-Admiral pronounced an interlocutor, deciding certain branches of the cause, and allowing a proof as to the remaining points.
The defenders, conceiving that a proof at large should have been allowed, brought a reduction of this interlocutor, and at the same time complained of it by a bill of suspension.
The pursuer contended, That the cause not being exhausted by the interlocutor of the Judge-Admiral, these proceedings were irregular, being in reality of the nature of an advocation from the Court of Admiralty, which was specially prohibited in maritime causes by 1681, c. 16.
The Lord Ordinary “refused the bill, as incompetent.”
In a reclaiming petition, the defenders
Pleaded; The statute 1681 allows suspensions and reductions, not merely of decrees, but of “acts” of the Court of Admiralty. These last clearly comprehend every interlocutory order; and indeed it would be multiplying litigation very unnecessarily, to continue a cause before a judge, who has made a radical mistake at the entrance of it.
The Lords refused the petition, without answers.
Lord Ordinary, Meadowbank.For the Petitioners, George Fergusson.Clerk, Menzies.
Fac. Col. No 83. p. 190.
