Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Robert Cutlar Fergusson of Craigdarroch, in the the county of Dumfries, and of Orroland in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, sought to have Major Dormer, residing at Craigdarroch House in the county of Dumfries, and at No. 6 Prince of Wales' Terrace, Kensington, London, decerned curator to him. On the maternal side, the nearest of kin to the pursuer, major and resident in Scotland, were his mother, now the wife of Major Dormer, and her brothers, Colonel Sir Archibald Alison, Bart., and Major Alison; while on the paternal side, the only next of kin who was major, was, so far as the pursuer knew, Madame Forçade de la Roquette, wife of the French Minister of the Interior, and resident in France. A deed of nomination in favour of Major Dormer was executed; but as the Lord Ordinary ( Barcaple) expressed doubts as to the approval of the deed of nomination, Major Dormer offered to bind himself to find caution in Scotland to any amount which might be required, and also to give such guarantee as might be deemed necessary that he would appear in Court to answer for his conduct as curator, or to find additional caution at any time that he might be called on to do so, and to submit himself to, and to prorogate the jurisdiction of, the Court of Session for the purposes of the curatory, and to assign a place in Scotland at which he might be cited. The Lord Ordinary reported the case to the Inner House.

Solicitor-General and Orr Paterson quoted the case of Lord Macdonald v. His Next of Kin, June 11, 1864, as a precedent for approving of the nomination.

The Court held that no such necessity had been shewn as would justify the appointment of a curator resident in England.