SCOTTISH INTESTATE SUCCESSION.
II.

In a former article it was tentatively suggested that if there be extended to Scotland the proposal of the English Law of Property Bill for the assimilation of the law of intestate succes sion in real estate to that applicable to personal estate the result might merely be simplification, and the prevention of injustice in the case of the death intestate of persons who own small amounts of real estate. For no one proposes to take away the power of testamentary disposition, and the owners of large heritable properties rarely or never die intestate.

But before applying the proposed reform to Scotland, one must look around and consider what subordinate or legally contiguous rights would be affected. And it may also be assumed that if so important a change be projected for Scotland, the occasion would be taken to reconsider generally the Scottish law of intestate succession. The object of the present notes is to discuss the matter from these two standpoints -without expressing, as yet, definitive opinions on the questions touched on.

As regards the proposed assimilation of herit able to moveable succession, critics will, naturally, at once ask what is to be done as regards courtesy and terce as regards jus relicti and jus relicte and legitim? Little light is to be obtained from England in answer to these assumed questions. In Scotland, opinion would certainly not be unanimous in the direction of enlarging these rights. Nor, on the other hand, would there be unanimity for their abolition. The necessary result therefore is that, if anything is to be done of consent, it must be in the way of regulation. To leave these rights alone is impossible if sex equality is to be attained. Moreover, so much technicality is associated with each of them that, if simplicity is to be effected, they must be dealt with. But they might be considered as a whole-not each separately.

Perhaps there would be a good deal of assent to the general principle that the legal rights of surviving spouses and children, emerging on death, ought to depend on the whole amount of the deceased's fortune, not on the circumstance -it may be transient or accidental—of its form, or investments representing it at the moment of death. If this view be accepted, it suggests, as a method of giving it effect, (a) that courtesy and terce be abolished, but (b) that this abolition be remembered and allowed for in dealing with the other legal rights.

Considerable progress would be effected by such abolition. (1) A distinction depending on sex would disappear. (2) Rights creating divided interests in property, interfering with management, development, and disposal, would go. (3) Rights affecting only a part, an ever varying proportion, of a deceased's estate, with

the element of chance thence arising, would no longer be part of our law; and (4) as a consequence of the abolition, a large quantity of technical law, based on no rules of equity, but in some cases even repugnant to equity, and a considerable amount of archaic procedure would cease from troubling the public and puzzling the practitioner. It is more natural to abolish legal rights affecting heritage than those affecting personal estate, because it is proposed as regards intestate succession to merge heritage into personal estate.

So far, so good. But if courtesy and terce are to be abolished, and this is to be remembered in dealing with the other legal rights, it must also be remembered that not a few persons would strenuously oppose any large increase of jus relicti, jus relicte, and (especially perhaps) of legitim. On the other hand, even the public may have an interest, up to a point, opposed to the right of a person of means to leave the members of his family penniless. Perhaps even the majority of Scotsmen, including those whose parents are still alive, would decline, even for the purpose of attaining similarity of law with England, to consent to the total abolition of those rights referred to. A great objection to them on the part of those opposed to them arises in the case of very rich persons, whose widow, or widower, or children may be more than amply endowed contrary to the deceased's wish, through the enforcement of those rights. Perhaps a measure of assent would be attained-as certainly legal simplicity in certain respects would be-if there were enacted a scale of legal rights, applicable to the deceased's whole free estate of whatever kind. How would it do to provide as follows:

In the case of a deceased whose free estate does not exceed £20,000:

Give widow or widower, and children as a class, each one-half or one-third, according as the division be bipartite or tripartite under present law.

In the case of a deceased whose free estate exceeds

£20,000 but does not exceed £100,000:

As above for first £20,000, at half the rate for excess beyond £20,000.

In the case of a deceased whose free estate exceeds £100,000 but does not exceed £500,000:

As above (two rates) for first £100,000, at half rate applicable between £20,000 and £100,000 for excess beyond £100,000.

In the case of a deceased whose free estate exceeds

economy and intelligibility, if the rights applied, as is proposed, to the whole free estate. Discrimination involves difficulty, and is often based not on principle but on mere technicality. It would be worth while to legislate if it were only for the purpose of eliminating the distinction which presently exists between the moveable property affected by the legal rights of a surviving spouse and those of a surviving child entitled to legitim.

If some such adjustments as have been outlined were made consequent on heritable estate being merged in moveable estate as regards succession, one could consider with greater advantage the second branch of our subject. Are any reforms of a general nature called for? It is suggested that the principle of "equality of sex requires two.

1. In the case of a deceased intestate who leaves no issue, or brother, or sister, or their issue surviving, but who is survived by both parents, ought not the two parents to inherit equally? And if only one parent survives in such a case, ought not he or she to inherit the whole?

2. Why should not relatives through the mother be put on the same footing as relatives of the same degree through the father. It is distressing when a deceased's property falls to the Crown, because he has no relatives entitled to succeed-even if he has near and dear relatives through his mother. Rules of intestate succession are supposed to reflect the presumed wishes of an intestate deceased. Will anyone pretend that a child, in the general case, wishes his surviving father to be preferred to his surviving mother-or even that relatives connected through the father be preferred to relatives through his mother?

It is not contended that these suggestions are exhaustive they are contributory and could easily be supplemented. For example, it is worthy of consideration whether there ought to be "representation" in legitim-whether it might not be expedient to confer on a parent power to restrict a child's right in legitim to an inalienable liferent whether the amount of legal rights ought to be ascertainable solely by values as on the day of death, or from values or prices obtainable in due course of administration -whether, in cases in which representation operates, there ought not to be benefit to the surviving spouse, if any, of the person whose predecease opens the way to representation. No doubt other suggestions could be made, and perhaps one effect of those here made and of others which may be made would be to reconcile those persons who are adverse to the existence of the legal right of legitim to its continuance on an altered and simpler basis.

MESSRS MACNIVEN & MACNIVEN, S.S.C., the National Bank of Scotland Buildings, Fort William, intimate that they have assumed Mr Robert Dow, solicitor, as a partner in their firm.

EAST STIRLINGSHIRE SOLICITORS. At the annual meeting of the Society of Solicitors for the Eastern District of Stirlingshire, held at Falkirk, Mr J. M Wilson, Falkirk, was re-elected Dean; Mr W. J. Gibson, Falkirk, Vice-Dean; Mr J. W. Blackadder, Falkirk, secretary and treasurer; and Mr J. Symington Quig, Falkirk, auditor. Messrs J. W. Burns, Andrew Hunter, Thomas Turnbull, and Andrew Gray, Falkirk, were appointed to act as procurators for the poor for the ensuing year.

THE firm of William Baird, Winter & Cowan, solicitors, 83 West Regent Street, Glasgow, has been dissolved by the retiral therefrom of Mr Andrew R. Cowan, who has been assumed a partner in the firm of Messrs Kilpatrick & Wilson, 33 Newmarket Street, Ayr.

Mr James G. Winter has assumed as a partner Mr John Cameron, M.A., LL.B., solicitor, Glasgow, and the business will be carried on under the firm name of Baird, Winter & Cameron at 83 West Regent Street, Glasgow.

66

Those who are familiar with the earlier editions of Mr Jenks' work on the English Local Government will welcome a new edition which incorporates the latest statutory changes and brings them down to date. With their roots very deep in the past, English local institutions have, in recent times, been made the subject of so much statutory change as to have become hardly recognisable in their modern dress. Built up on such ancient foundations as the Hundred" and the "Burh," there has, in the course of centuries, grown up an elaborate system of local administration adapted to the complex needs of modern society. The author's treatment is in the main practical, and his aim utilitarian; but he never loses sight of the underlying historical basis of his subject. The book is not intended for the expert, either in history or in law; but, as a practical guide to the working of the complicated machine of modern local administration, it has long established its utility, and promises in this latest edition to deserve no less success.

The Law of Evidence. By Sidney L. Phipson, Barrister-at-Law. Sixth Edition. London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. Price £2, 2s. net.

A new edition of Mr Phipson's work on the law of Evidence, bringing the treatment of the subject down to date, and incorporating the latest authorities, will be very welcome to the many lawyers who have learnt from the earlier editions how reliable a guide this author is on the important subject of which he writes. The new edition bears signs of very careful revision, and some hundreds of additional cases are referred to. It is a somewhat unusual thing to find that a book nearly thirty years old still has the advantage, in its successive editions, of the author's own handiwork. The English lawyer is fortunate in having a wealth of excellent treatises on the subject of the law of Evidence, though it is true that he is indebted for some of the best of them to American scholarship. But Mr Phipson's work can always hold its own by reason of its hitting the happy mean between the vast and unwieldy treatises on the one hand and the scanty summaries on the other. The effect on a Scots lawyer of reading such a volume as this is to make him wish that Scottish legal writers could be found to devote their attention to this important branch of law in a scientific and up-to-date examination of the Scottish law of Evidence, which, it need hardly be said, differs in material points from that of England.

Leading Cases in Common Law. By the late Ernest Cockle, Barrister-at-Law, and W. Nembhard Hibbert, LL.D., Barrister-at-Law. London: Sweet & Maxwell Ltd. Price £2, 2s. net.

The late Mr Cockle's treatise on "Leading Cases on Evidence" is well known to, and highly appreciated by, students of English law; and that learned writer left a considerable body of material which he had prepared for a book on similar lines which was designed to deal with the whole Common Law of England. The material has been expanded and arranged into the present work by Mr Hibbert. The method employed, as is well known to readers of Mr Cockle's former work, is to arrange in logical order the doctrines of the Common Law, and to collect under each the leading cases treating of that topic. The actual reference to each case consists of no more than a short rubric of the legal rule and a short quotation from the leading opinion. The result is a book which must prove useful alike to the student and the practitioner. It supplies a systematic treatise on the Common Law which, if not in the most readable form, has at least the advantage of keeping the reader in constant touch with the

authorities on which the different doctrines are based. It supplies also to the practising lawyer a useful means of finding his case law. We can confidently anticipate for this volume a success equal to that which has attended the earlier work on Evidence.

The Workmen's Compensation Act 1906. By W. Addington Willis, Barrister-at-Law. Twentieth Edition. London: Butterworth & Co. Price 15s. net.

Messrs Butterworth send us the twentieth edition of Mr Willis's useful compendium of the case-law on the subject of Workmen's Compensation. On this, more than on any other legal topic, may it be said that no book is of much use except the very latest. And the last year has not been unimportant to the development of this branch of law.

The series of House of Lords judgments on the relation of prohibited acts by a workman to his claim to compensation for resulting accident, of which Moore v. Donnelly is the best known, would alone make 1921 a landmark in the growth of this difficult department of law. It need only be said of this latest edition that it seems fully to maintain the reputation gained by its forerunners for accuracy and exhaustiveness.

JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES IN SCOTLAND.

The following have been registered for week ending 16th September:

11859-Sheddon Brothers Ltd., 176 Ingram Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on business as wholesale paper merchants, bookbinders' furnishers, stationers, printers, lithographers, boxmakers, etc. Capital-£10,000 in £1 shares. 11860-Aitken & Neilson Ltd. (private company), to carry on business as house painters, etc. Capital-£1000 in £1 shares. Subscribers-F. W. C. Aitken, painter, Johnstone, and John M'Cann, painter, Linwood.

11861-Drop Forgings Ltd., 156 St Vincent Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on the business of drop forgings and stampings, and of iron, brass, and metal founders. Capital-£5000 in £1 shares.

11862-James M. Hay & Sons Ltd., 38 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on the business of paper and envelope makers and of stationers, wholesale and retail. Capital-£10,000 in £1 shares.

11863-Capes, Dick & Co. Ltd., 166 Buchanan Street, Glasgow (private company), to acquire the business carried on by Capes, Dick & Co., wine and spirit merchants, Motherwell. Capital-£500 in £1 shares.

The following have been registered for week ending 30th September:

11869-National Ham-Slicing Machine and Automatic Scale Co. Ltd., 25 Wellington Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on the business of manufacturers, general merchants, and to deal in ham-slicing machines, automatic scales, etc. Capital-£500 in £1 shares.

11870-J. & M. Kennedy Ltd., 5 Sunnyside Road, Coat

bridge (private company), to take over the business of bakers and confectioners, now carried on by J. & M. Kennedy, 5 and 6 Sunnyside Road and 11 Baird Street, Coatbridge. Capital-£2000 in £1 shares.

11871-Saint Roque's Automobile Co. Ltd., 64 Ward Road, Dundee (private company), to take over the business of motor on by David Johnston MacDonald at Ward Road, Dundee.

engineers and agents, and of a motor garage, etc., now carried Capital-£10,000 in £1 shares.

Dykehead, Shotts. Capital-£2000 in £1 shares.

11872-Dykehead Football Club Ltd., Rosehall Road,

11873-M. Boyle & Co. Ltd., 58 Buchanan Street, Glasgow (private company), to take over the business of hosiery & Co. at above address, and at 2 Milk Street Buildings, Milk merchants and knitted coat specialist, carried on by M. Boyle Street, London. Capital-£15,000 in £1 shares.

11874-Globe Financiers Ltd., 4 York Street, Glasgow agents, moneylenders, pawnbrokers, etc. Capital-£1000 in (private company), to carry on the business of financial £1 shares.

11875-Olympia Pictures (Dunfermline) Ltd., 40 West Nile Street, Glasgow (private company). Capital-£3000 in £1 shares.

11876-Scottish Advertising Ltd., 38 Bath Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on the business of advertising Henry Welsh, 46 Lilybank Road, Glasgow. Capital-£7000 contractors and agents, and to enter into an agreement with in 6700 ordinary shares of £1 and 6000 deferred shares of 1s.

The following have been registered for week ending 6th October:

11877-Simons & Co. Ltd., 89 Candleriggs, Glasgow (private company), to carry on the business of fruit, vegetables, and produce growers, etc. Capital-£100,000 in £1 shares.

11878-James Brown & Son (Glasgow) Ltd., 52 Darnley Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on business as printers and publishers. Capital-£15,000 in £1 shares.

11879-Main & Co. Ltd., 43 Hope Street, Glasgow (private company), to carry on business as seed merchants, manure manufacturers, and importers of all kinds of fertilisers and feeding stuffs, etc. Capital-£12,000 in £1 shares.

11880-J. & A. Phillips Ltd., 17 Albion Street, Glasgow (private company), to acquire the business of J. & A. Phillips, wholesale grocers, lard and fruit importers, Glasgow. Capital-£30,000 in £1 shares.

11864-Grove Picture House Ltd. (private company). Capital-£15,000 in £1 shares. The subscribers' addresses are in Glasgow.

Capital11882-The M'Lean Hosiery Manufacturing Co. Ltd., 85 Candleriggs, Glasgow (private company), to acquire the business of the M Lean Hosiery Manufacturing Co., hosiery manufacturers, Glasgow. Capital-£2000 in £1 shares.

11883--The Lochgelly United Football Club Ltd., Recreation Park, Lochgelly. Capital-£1000 in 2s. 6d. shares. 11884--Peter Miller, 96 Renfield Street, Glasgow (private and unlimited company), to acquire the business of Peter Miller, merchants, dealers, and agents, at above address. Capital-£500 in £1 shares.