Page images
PDF
EPUB

known causes as Earl of Kintore v. Pirie & Sons Ltd. and Brooks v. Brooks' Trs. He was connected with many benevolent and philanthropic institutions in the city of Aberdeen, among which may be mentioned the Royal Aberdeen Hospital for Sick Children (of which he was hon. secretary and treasurer for about thirty years) and the Aberdeen Asylum for the Blind. He was also a director of numerous well-known joint stock companies, including the Northern Assurance Company and the North of Scotland and Town and County Bank Ltd., and took a leading part in the negotiations for the amalgamation of these two banks.

Exacting and strenuous as Mr Milligan's business life was, his activities were not confined to purely professional channels. He always took a very keen interest in the affairs of his Alma Mater, and during the quatercentenary celebrations of 1906 he did splendid service as convener of the Hospitality Committee. For many years he held a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers), retiring in 1902 with the rank of Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel. As might be expected from his upbringing, he was a warm adherent of the Church of Scotland and a well-known figure in the General Assembly. He also played an active part in political affairs, and in 1907 he was elected president of the Aberdeen Unionist Association.

Mr Milligan was keenly interested in sport, and, when time permitted, no one enjoyed more than he a day with the fishing-rod or the gun. In private life he was known to his intimates as a generous host and a loyal friend.

Mr Milligan is survived by his widow, the only daughter of the late Mr John D. Milne, jun., advocate. His elder brother is the Very Rev. George Milligan, Professor of Biblical Criticism, Glasgow University, and late Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland; and his younger brothers are Sir William Milligan, Manchester, the distinguished aural surgeon; Mr Frederick Paterson Milligan, W.S., Edinburgh; Dr Wyndam Anstruther Milligan, London; and the Rev. O. B. Milligan, M.C., parish minister of Jedburgh.

There was a large and representative attendance of landed proprietors in the North of Scotland, Aberdeen advocates, and business men of Aberdeen and district on the following Saturday at the funeral from the deceased's residence, 20 Albyn Place, to Kincardine O'Neil, Deeside, where the deceased's estate of Findrack is situated. At the house, Mr Milligan's brother, the Very Rev. Professor George Milligan, Glasgow University, conducted the service, assisted by the Rev. Dr George Walker, minister of the East Parish Church, Aberdeen, in which the deceased was for many years an elder, while at the graveside another brother, the Rev. O. B.

Milligan, M.C., minister of Jedburgh, assisted by the Rev. Dr Gavin Argo, minister of Kincardine O'Neil, officiated.

The chief mourners were the Very Rev. Professor Milligan and Mrs Milligan, Glasgow; Mr F. P. Milligan, W.S., Edinburgh (brother); the Rev. O. B. Milligan, M.C., Jedburgh (brother); Mr J. A. Milne, Surrey (brother-inlaw); Mrs Trail, Old Aberdeen (widow of Professor Trail) (sister), and Miss Brenda Trail; Mr R. Hill Stewart, Edinburgh, and Mrs Hill Stewart (sister); Miss Milligan, London (sister); Miss Annie Milligan, Edinburgh (sister); Mr Jack Carey, Shelborne (nephew); Mr Will Milligan, Glasgow (nephew); and Mr W. 0. Duncan, advocate, Aberdeen (cousin).

The pall-bearers were: Mr F. P. Milligan, Dr W. A. Milligan, Mr J. A. Milne, Mr R. H. Stewart, Mr A. S. R. Bruce, advocate (of Messrs Davidson & Garden), Mr W. O. Duncan, Dr J. E. Crombie, Parkhill, representing Aberdeen University Court, to which Mr Milligan was for a considerable period one of the assessors from the University General Council), and Mr F. J. Cochran of Balfour, advocate. Representing the University were Principal Sir George Adam Smith, practically all the members of the University Court, and Mr H. J. Butchart, D.S.O., B.L., advocate, secretary to the University; and the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen was represented by the president, Mr Patrick Cooper; Mr William Rae, advocate (treasurer); and Mr Frederick W, Kay, advocate (secretary).

NOTES FROM PARLIAMENT HOUSE.

The tumult and the shouting of the election have died, and it is some time since the campaigners who went forth from our midst returned from their oratorical triumphs all over the country, husky but (very largely) successful. On this occasion many more of the Parliament House candidates have been elected. No fewer than ten have seats in the new House of Commons, all of them members of the Unionist majority. The Prime Minister had therefore a large selection from which to make his choice of law officers; but there was never any doubt who the new Lord Advocate and Solicitor-General would be. The appointments of Mr Watson and Mr Fleming were therefore received with approval and without excitement. Two members of the Bar who were in the last House have lost their seats. Only three of those now returned to Westminster were in the last Parliament-Sir Robert Horne, Sir W. Mitchell-Thomson, and Mr F. C. Thomson. The representatives of the senior Bar who now join them are Mr Watson, Mr

Fleming, Mr MacRobert, Mr Clark Hutchison, be intolerable to a business man engaged in and Mr Macquisten. The juniors returned are litigation. The ordinary case, moved to the Mr Skelton and Mr Ford, who regained the seats roll, appears for hearing in about a year. Bethey lost at the last election, and Sir W. fore it reaches that stage it has probably been Mitchell-Thomson, who has been appointed frittering in the Procedure Roll for some months Postmaster-General. Of course, the two last-after a similar period in the Adjustment Roll. named advocates have not maintained a close connection with Parliament Hall. Of the ten M.P.s only Mr Fleming and Mr MacRobert are without previous parliamentary experience. The new House of Commons will be without a Bar representative in either of the opposition parties.

As a set-off to this, it is interesting to read that one of the Glasgow members, in the person of Mr Campbell Stephen, has been called to the English Bar. This will be an assistance, says the Labour daily paper, when the next Socialist Government is in power. The question of the Scottish legal appointments will then present no difficulty. Mr Rosslyn Mitchell, the new M.P. for Paisley, and Mr Campbell Stephen, both being lawyers, will be eligible for appointment as Lord Advocate and Solicitor-General respectively. It is sad to note how indifferent, if not indeed actively hostile, this particular party and its members always seem to be to Parliament House.

It is a notable feature of present-day politics that election petitions appear to be almost obsolete. There is actually not one resulting from the general election. This may be a remarkable tribute to the purity of modern political life, or it may be, as has charitably been pointed out, that nowadays constituencies are too large for bribery to be practicable. It would be very little good at the present time to engage Mr Weller, senior, to tip a coach-load of voters into the canal; and with the present excise duties, it would be a hopeless task for anyone but a Monte Cristo to deal with the doubtful voters of any of our great constituencies as was done in the ancient borough of Eatonswill. As a matter of historic interest, can any reader of the "Scots Law Times" give a list of the most recent election petitions in Scotland ?

[ocr errors]

Add to this the possibility of a House of Lords appeal, and the attractions of litigation in Scotland are none too apparent. Can nothing be done to simplify, and generally to "gingerup our procedure? In answer to a recent correspondent in this paper who suggested that salvation might be found in, among other things, a drastic reduction in counsel's fees, it may be stated that a distinguished litigant in this country only the other day expressed himself as shocked" to find on what an inadequate scale remuneration was made to counsel in this country.

66

In connection with the reform of our procedure, the late Lord Advocate, speaking the other day at Aberdeen, said that he had a very strong feeling that the system of procedure in their Courts in Scotland wanted overhauling. As one who had to work on the machine, he had the feeling for years that they were not giving at the present moment that service of public justice in their Courts which the commercial community of the country was entitled to have. (Hear, hear, and applause.) They were still practising in the Supreme Courts of Scotland under a statute passed nearly sixty years ago; and his feeling was that their Courts were now ripe for reasonable and sensible measures of reform, which would enable the justiciary and bar of the country to cater for the legal needs of the country in a more effective, a more expeditious, and a less expensive form. (Applause.) It would have been his ambition, had it been his good fortune to be longer in office, to have set his hand to that somewhat difficult task, but he had not the least doubt that in the hands of his successor the question would also be taken up, and would be most competently and adequately dealt with. (Applause.)

From correspondence which has been proThe session drags on somewhat ingloriously ceeding in the English newspapers, both lay and so far as volume of work is concerned. During legal, it is evident that the inclusion of the one week we had the melancholy spectacle of Attorney-General in the Cabinet is not viewed the Outer House without a single proof among with favour. That this attitude is not any its five judges, except a few undefended divorces; reflection on the present holder of the office is and yet one of the factors which institutes most quite clear from the terms of the criticisms, strongly against litigation is the delay which the for, as Sir Harry Poland (still writing to the would-be litigant must face before getting a Times at the age of ninety-six) observes: decision. The situation is not unlike that in the" That the Attorney - General deserves probody politic at large. Then we have the motion of some kind all are agreed." It is the singular paradox of a great body of unemploy- form of the promotion to which the critics take ment combined with a housing shortage. In exception, on grounds both professional and our humbler sphere we have a shortage of work constitutional. It is pointed out that most combined with a delay in the progress of cases distinguished men who were statesmen as well from summons to final judgment, which must as lawyers have filled the office of Attorney

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

General, whom it was not thought right to Heritor's Fire Insurance. It was reported include in the Cabinet. Instances of this, given that a railway company, who had called in by Sir Harry Poland, are: "Sir John Campbell; question the inclusion of fire insurance premiums Sir Hugh Cairns, the friend of Mr Disraeli; Sir as part of the expenditure on upkeep of ecclesiRoundell Palmer, the friend of Mr Gladstone; astical buildings, had resolved not to press their and, last but not least, Lord Birkenhead, who objection, and had acquiesced in the assessment. protested against the Cabinet's interfering with Revision of the Table of Fees.-It was reported him in the exercise of his duties as Attorney- that the Sub-Committee were dealing with this General." The Lord Chancellor, of course, hav-matter and had made progress with the drafting ing a seat in the Cabinet, may there sustain the of a new table. rôle of Minister of Justice. The necessity of keeping the Attorney-General and his department aloof from political considerations, to put it no more highly, has been recently illustrated. Incidentally, the statement made when these "Notes" last appeared that Sir John Simon was the last holder of his office with a seat in the Cabinet was not correct; Sir Gordon Hewart sat in the Cabinet when he was senior law officer.. A Scots Law Student writes that he is making a collection of standard works on legal subjects not generally treated at sufficient length in the ordinary text-books. Among his recent acquisitions are "The Summons,' by A. E. W. Mason; "The Long Roll," by Mary Johnston; and The Searchers," by John Foster. He will be glad to know of any other works of a suitable nature.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

INCORPORATED SOCIETY OF LAW
AGENTS IN SCOTLAND.

The monthly meeting of the Council was held
in Edinburgh on 20th November, Mr John
Pattison, the President, in the chair.
Committees. The Committees were adjusted
and reappointed for the ensuing year.

Rents Restriction Acts.-A remit was made by the Council to consider any Bills which might be introduced to amend the existing Act or to provide for its continuance.

Law of Diligence.-It was reported that a Bill had been drafted to give effect to the alterations recommended by the Departmental Committee which it is hoped to press forward on an early date.

Burgh Registers and Land Tenure Bills.-It was resolved to take steps to ensure the passing of these Bills during the coming session, and the Council instructed their representatives on the Joint Committee of Legal Societies to bring the matter before the Committee.

Legal Education.-A report was submitted from the Legal Education Committee on the draft regulations for admission of Law Agents. The report bore that these were generally approved of, but certain points were submitted for further consideration. A suggestion that a joint meeting should be arranged between representatives of the Scottish Education Board and the Law Examiners was approved.

New Members.-The following solicitors, all practising in Glasgow, were unanimously admitted members of the Society: James Alexander Forsyth, Lewis Rose, R. Maitland Cowan, J. A. Mitchell, William Inverwick Thomson, John F. Ballantine, Fred. J. Mackenzie, James Stevenson, Robert Carmichael Paterson, Cuthbert P. Lyle, P. Muir Macnab, John MacAlister, and Alexander Francis Young.

NOTICE.

The sittings of the First Division of the Court
for the trial of causes by jury in the ensuing
Christmas Recess will begin on Monday, 22nd
December next.
J. P.

EDINBURGH, 27th November 1924.

The sittings of the Second Division of the Court for the trial of causes by jury in the ensuing Christmas Recess will begin on Monday, 22nd December next. J. A.

EDINBURGH, 27th November 1924.

WE regret to record the death of Mr Duncan MacLaren, S.S.C., of Strowan Lodge, Edinburgh, which occurred at Kilconquhar. The deceased was one of Scotland's oldest and leading lawyers.

Mr MacLaren was born in 1853 near Dunkeld, and, after serving his apprenticeship in law at Perth, came to Edinburgh and gained experience in the Town-Clerk's office, and later with Messrs Boyd, Jamieson & Co., W.S., Leith. He joined the late Mr Duncan Smith, S.S.C., in 1877, and entered into partnership with him in 1881.

Mr MacLaren was a good shot, and was a well-known golfer, having a long connection with the Mortonhall Golf Club. He was elected captain for three years, and was a member of the Council for twenty years, until 1912, when he retired. He is survived by a family of two sons and six daughters.

The funeral took place to Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh, on Tuesday last. The pall-bearers included a son and four daughters; Mr H. H. Considine, W.S., son-in-law; Mr John Lindsay, Montrose, nephew; and the Rev. James S. Carswell, Temple, Glasgow, brother-in-law. A brief service at the graveside was conducted by Rev. Mr Carswell in the presence of a large number of friends.

LEGAL LIFERENTS.

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

thereupon the right is judicially extinguished without any payment at all. The words The rights here referred to are terce and are and annual savour of immediate courtesy. It is not intended to discuss these ad hoc application, but it may be that par. (g) at length or generally, but only to touch on must be read along with par. (a), which consome special considerations which have in fact templates a judicial survey of "average free been suggested by section 21 of the new Con- rental " over a period of years backwards and an veyancing Act, which deals with the standard-estimate of the same forwards "for the preising, redemption, and extinction of these rights.

Let us take terce first, and let us assume a case which would hardly seem to have been in contemplation by the authors of this year's Act, namely, that the deceased husband's right of fee was subject to a conventional liferent in favour of A. That is merely the very ordinary case of an infeftment in favour of A in liferent and B (the deceased husband) in fee; though, indeed, infeftment is not now material if the death takes place after 31st December of this year; and further it may be that subsection (4) (a) of section 21 brings in cases where heritage is held by trustees for A as liferenter and B in fee. It goes without saying that the liferenter A may be younger than B's widow. Is such a case within the provisions of section 21 ? So far as we have observed, a case of this nature is not referred to by any of the institutional writers or in any other standard (or indeed in any) work. So long as things remain in the position stated, it is clear that there can be no terce fruits, but is the widow nevertheless in the position of 'having a right of terce out of land," which is the expression in subsection (3) (a)? That subsection prescribes the conditions for standardisation of terce, whether at the instance of the widow or against her; and unless terce has been standardised it cannot be redeemed. We think it is correct also to state that, wherever there has been standardisation, there may be redemption. Of course no one would suggest that the existence of an annuity, preferentially affecting the deceased husband's fee, is any bar to service and kenning under the prior law, or would be any bar to declarator of right of terce under the new Act. Nor would it matter how large the annuity was in relation to the net income, nor even though the annuity exhausted the present income. In these annuity cases, therefore, it is too clear for argument that the standardising and redeeming provisions would apply. But that is not to say that they will apply where a conventional liferent is in front, instead of an annuity.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

sumptive period of the widow's life." The
language is that the Court "may" make this
back survey and forward estimate. It is not
clear whether the may is not equivalent
to shall." If not, it is open to the Court to
adhere to the figures of the one year, though
these may include the debit of a very large
annuity in favour of a man over ninety and
known to be in a critical state of health. Or,
again, such an annuitant may have died last
year, and in that case it is difficult to see the
equity of bringing into account this expired
annuity so as to reduce the terce; but that is
what will happen if the backward survey is
brought into operation. It is known that this
point of terminable charges was under the
consideration of the framers of the Bill, but
whether the result is satisfactory is another
matter. Suppose it was not an annuity, but
a liferent, which expired last year, is the
result of the forward estimate to be diminished
by the result of the backward survey, the
effect of the latter in the case supposed being
nil for each
year?

The new Act is most careful to provide specially for the augmentation of benefit to a widow in right of lesser terce, contingent on her surviving, and after the death of, the full tercer in front of her. Now, the full terce in front is exactly equivalent to a prior annuity of like amount or a conventional liferent of one-third. It is, therefore, difficult to see the equity of dealing differently with these similar situations.

Reverting to the case of an exhaustive prior conventional liferent, either the case falls under the Act or it does not. If it does not, then the widow is safe from the risk of having her right confiscated by being valued at nil and extinguished without compensation. If it does fall under the Act, that is the risk. On the first of these assumptions it is helpful to see what may happen. If the successor in the fee desires to sell his reversionary right of fee, subject to the conventional liferent, he will do so either with, or without, the consent of the widow. If without her consent, her position In connection with these questions it is is unaffected. If with her consent, it must be important to keep in view that the Act con- on a pact for recognition of her terce right out tains (section 21 (3) (g)) provision for a judicial of the price on a fair actuarial basis, which finding that terce, though already judicially is a practical demonstration that, exhaustive declared to exist in right, has no value-" that liferent notwithstanding, the widow has a there are no free annual rents or profits," and positive quantity to her credit, and that any

extinction of that for nil would be a legislative may call-if it can exist at all-a postponed and judicial wrong.

Reference has been made to conventional liferents, but it is interesting to consider that the prior liferent in front of the terce might be a legal liferent by courtesy. When all our writers have expressly dealt with the case of one right of terce in front of another, which creates lesser terce, it is strange that the conception of the prior right being one of courtesy seems never to have been in terms recognised.

courtesy. But, after all, the prior courtesy is only a liferent. If a conventional liferent in front does not bar the application of the standardising and redeeming provisions of the Act to terce, neither will it bar their application to courtesy. From which it may be an easy step to say that neither will those provisions be barred by the existence of a prior legal liferent by courtesy.

The provisions for standardisation and redemption, including extinction without compensation, apply whether the husband or wife died before or after the commencement of the 1924 Act.

It will be interesting if readers will state whether in their personal experience they have seen any of the following cases :-(1) terce or courtesy subject to a prior conventional liferent, or exhausted by a prior annuity; (2) terce excluded by a prior courtesy right; (3) courtesy subject to a prior right of terce; (4) lesser terce, or a third concurrent terce right; (5) courtesy excluded by a prior courtesy right.

17th

Turning to courtesy, and in the first place apart from the new Act altogether, the peculiar thing is that, while throughout the authorities there is the full recognition of the concurrence of two or more rights of terce, the idea of the possibility of the same situation arising in the case of courtesy is, so far as we have traced the matter, never even suggested. So far as facts are concerned the case must have occurred, though it is no doubt true that fewer women than men owned, and own, heritable property. A woman dies, leaving heritage, and survived by her husband A and by a girl who is her heir at law. The widower A enters to courtesy, and during his lifetime his daughter grows up, EXTRA NORTH CIRCUIT, 1925.-The Hon. marries, and dies, owning the heritage, subject Lord Ormidale and the Hon. Lord Ashmore. to her father's exhaustive liferent by courtesy, Perth-Tuesday, 27th January 1925, at halfand survived by her father A, her husband B, past ten o'clock forenoon. Pleading Diet and a child. Obviously B's courtesy can-Saturday, 17th January 1925. Serviceyield nothing while A survives, and that is Saturday, 10th January Dundee— where it differs from lesser terce; but has B Tuesday, 3rd February 1925, at half-past ten a right of courtesy at all? On the one hand o'clock forenoon. Pleading Diet-Saturday, it is clear that no prior annuity would exclude 24th January 1925. Service-Saturday, 17th his right, not even though the annuity exhausted January 1925. Aberdeen-Tuesday, the rents. But, on the other hand, the legal February 1925, at half-past ten o'clock forerights of terce and courtesy are peculiar in- noon. Pleading Diet-Saturday, 7th February stitutions, and the Courts have more than once 1925. Service-Saturday, 31st January 1925. refused even to attempt to give reasons for the J. M. Hunter, Esq., Advocate-Depute; Messrs rules applicable to them. If, therefore, it is Alexander Rae and V. S. M. Marshall, clerks. the fact that in none of the legal sources is there any recognition of, or reference to, two (or more) courtesy rights in concurrence, it may be that the Courts would now refuse to decree | what in a practical sense would be an extension of this very ancient-rooted right, refusing at the same time to give any substantial reason for so deciding. So far negatively, but further there is the positive consideration that our jurists have, to some extent at least, based the husband's courtesy on the jus mariti, of which it is represented as an extension after the death of the wife. This assumes that during the marriage the husband was receiving the same rents jure mariti, which of course would not be true in a case where both husband and wife had been excluded from possession by a prior courtesy right.

Following the institutional writers the 1924 Act makes no express provision for what we

FACULTY OF ADVOCATES.-At a meeting of the Faculty of Advocates held on 3rd December (the Vice-Dean, Mr C. H. Brown, K.C., presiding), Mr G. L. Crole, K.C., Sheriff of the Lothians and Peebles, was reappointed as the representative of the Faculty on the Board of Managers of the Royal Infirmary for the ensuing year; Mr William Chree, K.C., and Mr Oswald Dykes were reappointed as trustees of the Craigcrook Mortification; and Mr W. G. Normand was appointed a governor of the Fettes Trust in the room of the Right Hon. H. P. Macmillan, K.C., who retires.

THE half-yearly meeting of the Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow was held on the 4th inst. in the Faculty Hall-Mr Timothy Warren, Dean, in the chair. The following members were admitted: Angus Macphail, writer, 302

« PreviousContinue »