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Scottish Court of Session Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Scottish Court of Session Decisions >> Love and Others v. Campbell and Others [1867] ScotLR 3_214_1 (6 February 1867)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1867/03SLR0214_1.html
Cite as: [1867] SLR 3_214_1, [1867] ScotLR 3_214_1
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SCOTTISH_SLR_Court_of_Session
Page: 214↓
Court of Session
Bill Chamber.
(Before
v.
Facts:
A suspension to interdict the collection of poor rates in a parish on the ground that the Parochial Board had resolved to grant exemptions in a manner said to be illegal, refused.
This was a suspension and interdict presented by certain ratepayers in the parish of Stevenston against the Parochial Board of that parish, whereby it was sought to “interdict, prohibit, and discharge the respondents as representing the Parochial Board of the parish of Stevenston, from collecting the assessment for relief of the poor of said parish for the year from 5th August 1866 to 5th August 1867, from one class of the ratepayers alone, and, in particular, from exempting from payment of said assessment in said parish for said year all tenants under £4 of rental, as a class, and without reference or inquiry into the special circumstances of particular claims to exemption, or from in any way carrying into effect the resolution to relieve such tenants as a class from payment of said rates adopted at a meeting of the Parochial Board of said of parish of Stevenston, held on 2d November 1866.”
The ground of suspension was that the resolution was illegal. The respondents answered that it was warranted by section 42 of the Poor Law Act, which authorised Parochial Boards to exempt any persons or class of persons on the ground of inability to pay.
Note.—As the object of this suspension is not so much to obtain exemption frompayment of an assessment, for which the complainers allege they are not legally liable, as to try the legality of a resolution of the Parochial Board of the parish of Stevenston relative to the manner in which the assessment in that parish is to be laid on and levied, and in the meantime to interdict the Board from carrying out that resolution, the Lord Ordinary doubts whether the complainers have a title to try that question, at least in a suspension. But, assuming the title and interest to be sufficient, the Lord Ordinary does not think he would be warranted in passing the note and granting interim interdict, when neither caution nor consignation is offered, especially in the case where, as here, the mode of levying complained of appears to have been acted on without objection for several years.
The suspenders acquiesced.
Counsel for Complainers— Mr W. M. Thomson. Agent— John Ross, S.S.C.
Counsel for Parochial Board— Mr John Burnet. Agent— John Thomson, S.S.C.