Scottish Court of Session Decisions

The petitioner Lea was imprisoned in the tolbooth of Musselburgh, on 2d November, 1837, at the instance of a creditor, and thereafter presented a petition to the Sheriff of Edinburgh under the act 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 56, praying the Sheriff to appoint a day and hour for his examination, and for warrant of intimation, “and, on production of a copy of the Edinburgh Gazette, containing notice of intimation, and a certificate of the transmission of the letters, or execution of citation, and a bond of caution, to grant warrant to liberate the petitioner from the jail of Musselburgh; and also to grant a personal protection in favour of the petitioner, against the execution of diligence for any civil debt contracted at or prior to the lodgment hereof, until the final disposal of the same,” and for the benefit of the process of cessio. The Sheriff granted warrant of intimation, and fixed the 8th January for the public examination of the debtor. Notice to the creditors was inserted in the Edinburgh Gazette, and copies of the notice sent by post to each of the creditors. On a motion to dispose of the conclusion in the petition for liberation and personal protection, the Sheriff “superseded consideration of that craving until the diet fixed for the examination of the pursuer.”

Against this interlocutor Lea reclaimed to the Court of Session, praying their Lordships to recall the same, and, “in terms of the 15th section of the above-mentioned act, to grant warrant of liberation and personal protection in favour of the petitioner, on caution to attend all diets of Court whenever required,” under the penalty of the sum for which he was incarcerated.