Scottish Court of Session Decisions

The estates of Peter Baillie, shipowner and coal merchant, Inverness, were sequestrated on 1st March 1879, and David Urquhart, accountant there, was appointed trustee thereon. This petition was presented by the trustee under the 65th section of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854. He averred that “at the date of his sequestration the said Peter Baillie was, and had been for a considerable time previously, managing owner and ship's husband of the British ship ‘Clachnacuddin,’ of Inverness, and at that date there was due to him, as managing owner aforesaid, in account with the owners of the said ship, the sum of £1843, 19s. 11d., conform to account herewith produced and referred to. The bankrupt himself was at said date owner of 52/64th shares of the said ship, while the remaining 12:64ths stood in the register in the name of ‘Mrs Phebe Jeffrey of Garmouth, in the county of Elgin, widow of the late James Jeffrey.’ Accordingly, of the above sum the proportion due by Mrs Jeffrey was 12/64ths, or £345, 15s. No part of the said last-mentioned sum has been paid to the petitioner, notwithstanding that he has made frequent application for payment of the same to Mrs Jeffrey and her agents, and the same is still due and resting-owing by her to him as aforesaid. Since the date of the said sequestration neither the petitioner nor the bankrupt have had any intromissions with the said ship, or its earnings or profits, the ship having been managed by other parties in the interests of mortgagees of the bankrupt's shares and of Mrs Jeffrey. The petitioner has recently learned that in or about June 1878 the said Mrs Jeffrey was married in Elgin to John James Stewart, hotel-keeper, Gympie, Queensland, Australia, and has since left this country,

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and is now resident at Gympie aforesaid with him. The petitioner is not aware whether there was any marriage-contract entered into between Mrs Jeffrey and Mr Stewart. The said 12/64th shares of the said vessel still stand in the register of the port of Inverness in name of Mrs Jeffrey.” “The ‘Clachnacuddin’ has been valued at £1000, and on this valuation, which it is believed is a correct one, the value of the said 12/64th shares is £187, 10s. Neither the said Mrs Phebe Jeffrey or Stewart nor her husband have, so far as the petitioner is aware, any other property in this country. In these circumstances the petitioner conceives it to be his duty to make the present application to your Lordships to prevent any dealings in the said 12/64th shares of the said ship till the said debt of £345, 15s. is paid. The petitioner intends forthwith to take such steps as he may be advised towards operating payment of the said sum from the said Mrs Jeffrey or Stewart and her husband.”

He therefore prayed the Court to grant an interim, order prohibiting any dealing with the said 12/64th shares for one month, and thereafter to interdict any dealing with the shares for one year from the date of the interlocutor ordering such prohibition, unless their Lordships should see cause before the expiry of the said period to withdraw such prohibition on an application by any parties interested in the said ship.