Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was a note of objection for Henry Walter Hope, Esquire of Craighall and Waughton, to the amount of duties marked by the Presenter of Signatures and Queen's Remembrancer on draft charters of confirmation in favour of the objector in the lands of Luffness, Waughton, Saltcoats, Craighall, and Easter Fairney.

It appeared that the last vassal, George William Hope, Esq., died on 18th Oct. 1863. The draft charters of confirmation in favour of the objector were lodged at the office of the Presenter of Signatures on 16th April 1867. It was found that one of the requisite titles was wanting, and that there was an error in the destination. These matters were put right on 1st May. Thereafter, the report by the Presenter of Signatures bore—“The clerk to the Presenter having gone over the new production and made the necessary corrections upon the drafts, the whole titles, along with the drafts, were on Friday, 3d May, sent to the Presenter for revisal. On the 7th of May they were returned from the Presenter revised, and the Presenter's clerk then proceeded to make out notes of the non-entry and other duties payable to the Crown. This occasioned considerable calculation, and, on the 9th of May, notes of these duties were sent to the Auditor in Exchequer for revisal and authentication. In fixing these duties the clerk to the Presenter only charged three and a-half years' non-entry duties, expecting that the drafts might probably be carried through before the term of Whitsunday 1867. But in going over the notes of duties, the Auditor in Exchequer considered it necessary to have evidence whether certain mines and minerals, on the value of the workings of which a duty was payable to the Crown, had been wrought, and, on the 14th May, notice of this having been given to the Presenter's clerk, he on the same day wrote to the objector's agent, requesting to know whether these mines and minerals had been worked, and also requesting him to send the receipt for the last payments of the feuduties. On the 24th of May the objector's agent sent the necessary information, as will be seen from his letter herewith; as the term had then passed, an additional half-year's non-entry duty became payable.”

Mr Hope contended that, as it was not his fault that the non-entry duties were not fixed and paid prior to Whitsunday 1867, he ought not to be charged with the additional half-year's duties.

It was stated in reply for the Presenter of Signatures, that the uniform practice in Exchequer had been followed, and that the original cause of delay lay with the objector. Answers were also lodged for the Commissioners of Woods and Forests.