Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_1Process
Subject_2Court of Session Act 1850 (13 and 14 Vict. cap. 36), sec. 40
Subject_3Fixing Place and Date of Jury Trial Headnote:

In an action of damages arising out of a railway accident, issues were adjusted before the Lord Ordinary on the 27th of May. His Lordship appointed the trial to take place before himself on a day which he named. The pursuer objected to the time and place fixed by the Lord Ordinary, who thereupon, in terms of the 40th section of the Court of Session Act of 1850, verbally reported the case to their Lordships of the First Division. In support of his objections to the time and place fixed by the Lord Ordinary, the pursuer stated that but for wilful delay on the part of the defender the case would have been ready for trial before the end of the Winter Session, at which time he would have been prepared to have moved the Court to fix the approaching Spring Circuit Court to be held in Glasgow as a suitable time and place for the trial. He further argued that as the locus of the accident was not far from Glasgow, in the neighbourhood of which the pursuer and the majority of the witnesses resided, their Lordships should fix Glasgow as the place, and the Circuit Court to be held there in September as the time, for the trial of the cause. The defender objected, and urged that as another claim arising out of the same accident (Pennilee) was to be tried on the day preceding that which the Lord Ordinary had fixed for the trial of this cause, and as the defender had all his evidence prepared, it would impose great hardship and expense upon him if the trial of this case was postponed till autumn, and further, that it was in the true interest of both parties that the two cases should be tried consecutively. Their Lordships found that no sufficient cause had been shown for altering the day fixed by the Lord Ordinary.