THE LATE MR ALEXANDER YEAMAN, A SITTING of the High Court of Justiciary was opened in Glasgow on 28th April. The Lord Justice-Clerk and Lord Blackburn were the presiding judges. Mr Wark, who was assisted by Mr Maconochie, appeared for the Crown in the North Court, while Mr Fenton, assisted by Mr William Wilson, prosecuted in the South Court. The circuit was one of the heaviest of recent years. The judges were escorted from Queen Street Station to the Justiciary Buildings by a guard of honour With the death of Mr Alexander Yeaman, which took place on 30th March, there passed away another of the well-known members of the legal profession connected with Forfarshire. Mr Yeaman has for many years been the senior partner of Messrs Lindsay, Howe & Co., and until within a very short time of his death was actively engaged in legal business. Although for some years it was known that the heart furnished by the 3rd Royal Scots, who are complaint from which he suffered must terminate fatally, he continued to watch over and advise his partners and clients, and his loss will be felt by many in all classes of society who came to him for guidance. More particularly perhaps will he be missed by his firm and the members of many old Scottish families whose friend and counsellor he was. Mr Yeaman was a director of the British Linen Bank, the Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society, and Messrs J. & R. in garrison at Maryhill Barracks. Before entering the buildings the judges, who were accompanied by Lord Provost Stewart and Sir John Lindsay, Town Clerk, inspected the guard. -At S.S.C. SOCIETY. a special general meeting of the S.S.C. Society held on 14th April the following gentlemen were admitted members of the Society: Mr Robert Arnott Duncan, solicitor, 20 Hill Street; Mr Charles Thomas Nightingale, solicitor, 42 Frederick Tennent Ltd. for many years and up to the Street; Mr Donald Macrae, 39 Castle Street. time of his death. He leaves a widow and a son, who is also a member of the firm of Lindsay, Howe & Co. THE Court of Session reassembled on Tuesday for the Summer Session. All the judges were in their places, with the exception of the Lord Justice Clerk, who was engaged in hearing an appeal in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Court rose early in the afternoon to enable the judges to attend the funeral of the late Lord Justice-Clerk. Thursday being term day, the Court did not sit. THE Lord Advocate has been elected an honorary Bencher of Gray's Inn. THE following list of members of the Faculty of Advocates who have returned to practice at the Bar after giving their services to the country. in war time is published with the authority of the Dean of Faculty: Mr J. R. Gibb, 24 Dundas Street. OWING to continued indisposition, Sheriff Lee, Airdrie, has been granted leave of absence for three months, and Mr G. D. Valentine, advocate, has been appointed interim Sheriff-Substitute at Airdrie during that period. NEW SHERIFFS-SUBSTITUTE. Mr Dudley Stuart, Sheriff Substitute at Banff, has been appointed Sheriff-Substitute at Cupar in succession to the late Sheriff Armour-Hannay. Mr John W. More, advocate, has been appointed Sheriff-Substitute at Banff in succession to Sheriff Dudley Stuart. Sheriff Dudley Stuart was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1886, and was appointed Sheriff Substitute at Wick in 1902. Nine years later he was transferred to Banff, and while there it has been his duty to share in the work at Aberdeen. He has been a great success as a Sheriff-Substitute, and his promotion will be popular everywhere-except, perhaps, in Banff and Aberdeen. Mr John More is a son of the late Mr Francis More, C.A., and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1905. A Conservative in politics, he has done a lot of work for his party, and has acted as secretary of the Constitutional Union. In war time he acted with great success as a military representative both in the far north and in the extreme south of Scotland. He has been a reporter for the "Scots Law Times" for a number of years. MR DUDLEY STUART presented his commission as Sheriff-Substitute of Fife in Cupar Sheriff Court on Monday. Sheriff Fleming, in giving him welcome, said he came among them as a judge with a high reputation for the work he had done at Wick and Banff, and more especially at Aberdeen. Mr R. Osborne Pagan, W.S., Dean of the Society of Procurators for East Fife; Mr George Brander, procurator-fiscal, and Provost Stark, Cupar, also joined in the welcome. Sheriff Dudley Stuart said he was well content to come to Fife, for he was by birth and upbringing a lowlander, and had also a Fife connection, and that gave him a feeling that he was not altogether a stranger coming among strangers. Sheriff Dudley Stuart was also introduced at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court. NEW CROWN AGENT. The Lord Advocate has appointed Mr John Prosser, W.S., to be Crown Agent in room of Mr W. J. Dundas, W.S., who has resigned. Mr William John Dundas, W.S., LL.D., comes of a family distinguished in the annals of the law of Scotland. His father was Lord Manor, a senator of the College of Justice, and his brother is the present Lord Dundas, who, after holding the office of Solicitor-General for was a member of the firm of Messrs Dundas & Mr Prosser is the senior partner of the firm of Messrs Morton, Smart, Macdonald & Prosser, W.S. He is a native of Strathardle, Perthshire, and began his legal training in Dundee. In 1876 he came to Edinburgh as junior clerk to the firm of Messrs Morton, Neilson & Smart, W.S. Mr Prosser was a student of distinction in the law classes at Edinburgh University, and he became a partner of the firm in 1883. He acted as a Sub-Commissioner in connection with the Royal Commission under the Churches (Scotland) Act. He was also a member of the Royal Commission on Registration of Title, which sat under the chairmanship of Lord Dunedin. He joined the S.S.C. Society in 1884 and he became a member of the W.Š. Society in 1898. THE LATE SIR JOHN H. A. MACDONALD. We regret to record the death of Sir John Hay Athole Macdonald, formerly Lord JusticeClerk, which took place on 9th May. Sir John had been in London a few days before his death, and was taken ill on his return, and the end came somewhat suddenly. Sir John Macdonald, who was the son of the late Mr Macdonald Hume, W.S., of Ninewells, was educated at Edinburgh Academy and at Basle and Edinburgh Universities, and was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1859. He soon made his mark at the Bar, and in 1874, when he was only thirty-eight years of age, he received the appointment of Sheriff of Ross, Cromarty, and Sutherland from Mr Disraeli. Two years later he succeeded Lord Watson as Solicitor-General, and he remained at the Crown Office until the defeat of the Conservative party at the General Election of 1880. In that year he was appointed Sheriff of Perth, and in 1882 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. In 1885 he was appointed Lord Advocate in Lord Salisbury's short-lived Administration, and at the General Election of 1885 he was returned to Parliament as member for Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities. He went out of office with his party in January 1886, but was again appointed Lord Advocate in the following July. He held the office of Lord Advocate until he was raised to the Bench as Lord Justice-Clerk in 1888. As Lord Advocate his most important achievement was the passing of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1887- a statute which has justified the Scotsman's boast that the Scots system for the detection and punishment of crime is the best in the world. For some years he was one of the leading counsel in the late Mr Justice Kekewich's court, and later on attached himself to Mr Justice Eve's court. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster in 1912. In 1888 Mr Macdonald (as he then was) was appointed Lord Justice-Clerk in succession to Lord Moncreiff, taking the judicial title of Lord Kingsburgh. He proved to be a most successful judge, especially in the Criminal Courts. He presided at almost all the great criminal trials of his time with unfailing success in short, he was one of the LAW AGENTS' EXAMINATIONS. CONCESSIONS greatest of criminal judges. In civil cases, while he did not pre- TO EX-SERVICE MEN.-The Examiners of Law tend to be a great lawyer, his common sense Agents have granted certificates of exemption and shrewdness made him an admirable judge.from the First Examination in General KnowHe was in his element when presiding at a jury trial; he could, indeed, handle a jury with a skill which was excelled by none of his colleagues. Successful as was his professional career, there were few men of his time who had so many outside interests. He was an enthusiastic volunteer. His connection with that force began in 1859, and from 1864 to 1880 he acted as Lieutenant-Colonel in command of the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles, and from 1882 to 1901 he was in command of the Forth Volunteer Infantry Brigade. He was greatly interested in applied science-was a Fellow of the Royal Society and a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers. He divined the possibilities of motoring at a very early period of its history, and was one of the first persons in Scotland to own a motor car. In 1915 Sir John resigned the office of Lord Justice-Clerk, which he held for the long period of twenty-seven years. At the age of seventynine he had well earned a period of leisure, but leisure seems to have been the last thing he desired. Shortly after his resignation he published his "Life Jottings of an Edinburgh Citizen," which proved a popular book of He was most zealous in war work, and no important public ceremony in Edinburgh during that period was complete without his presence. reminiscences. Sir John Macdonald married in 1864 an Irish lady, Miss Adelaide Doran, who died in 1870. He had three sons, the eldest of whom is a member of the Scottish Bar. ledge to twenty-eight applicants who have served in the naval or military forces, and who have satisfied the examiners as to their general education for entering upon indentures of apprenticeship, in terms of the Act of Sederunt of 19th March last. MESSRS GARDINER & MACFIE, S.S.C., have removed to 57 Queen Street, Edinburgh. MR P. D. N. MENZIES, W.S., has been. assumed a partner in the firm of Menzies & Thomson, W.S. MESSRS J. & W. MACDONALD, solicitors, Arbroath, have assumed as partners Lieut.Colonel Dickson, D.S.O., W.S., and Mr Archibald Hutcheon, M.A., B.L., solicitor, both of whom have been in their office for a considerable number of years. The business will be carried on under the present firm name of J. & W. Macdonald. IN consequence of the death of Mr Gavin Crawford on 4th March last, the firm of Macnair & Crawford, writers, Paisley, was dissolved as at that date. Mr T. Dun Macnair has assumed Mr William George Swan, writer, Elliestoun, Calside Avenue, Paisley, as a partner, and the business will in future be carried on, under the name of Macnair, Crawford & Swan, at 29 High Street, Paisley. MR D. G. ANDERSON, solicitor, has comMR ALFRED CLIVE LAWRENCE, barrister-at-menced practice as a solicitor at 65 Irish law, has been appointed Junior Counsel to the Street, Dumfries. Ministry of Labour. SIR DUDLEY STEWART-SMITH, K.C., Vice Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, died on 9th May. The son of Mr Alexander Stewart-Smith, merchant, of London and Hong Kong, he was educated at the International College, Isleworth, and at University College, London, where he took the degree of LL.B. He was admitted a solicitor in 1879, and was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1886. He was also a member of Lincoln's Inn. He joined the Chancery side, where he devoted himself to the winding-up and reconstruction of companies. He took silk in 1902. MR THOMAS FRASER WHITEWRIGHT, solicitor, Hamilton, has been appointed Depute TownClerk of Hamilton. Mr Whitewright served his apprenticeship with Messrs William Baird, Winter & Co., Glasgow, and Messrs Laird & Macintyre. Thereafter he held an appointment with Messrs Cowan, Clapperton & Barclay, and he is at present on the staff of Messrs M'Grigor, Donald & Co. MR ALEXANDER BRODIE, solicitor, Banff, and agent for the Commercial Bank of Scotland Ltd. at Banff and Gardenstown, has been appointed Town Clerk of Banff. MR JAMES JOHNSTONE, solicitor, Moffat, has been appointed Clerk to Moffat Parish Council, Inspector of Poor and Parish Registrar, in succession to the late Mr James Edgar. in 1871, and became a member of the firm of Mitchell & Baxter, retiring in 1894. He was a a close personal friend of Robert Louis Stevenson. THE firm of Hodge, Morton & MacLean, CONTINUED ADJUSTMENT OF RECORD. chartered accountants, 115 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, 8 North St. David Street, Edinburgh, and 16 Chichester Street, Belfast, was dissolved as at 26th March 1919. The business in Glasgow will be continued by Mr Neil Sinclair MacLean in his own name; the business in Edinburgh will be continued by Mr Robert Greenwood Morton in his own name; and the business in Belfast will be continued by Mr James Duncan Hodge in his own name. MR JAMES EDGAR, Moffat, whose death took place on 11th April, was for many years an assistant in the office of Messrs T. & W. Tait, solicitors, Moffat. He also held numerous public appointments, having acted as Deputy TownClerk, Burgh Chamberlain, Inspector of Poor, and Clerk to the Parish Council. WE regret to record the death of Mr James Ayton, S.S.C., which took place in Edinburgh on 29th April. Mr Ayton, who was only fiftysix years of age, was one of the best known members of the legal profession in Edinburgh, and conducted a large Court and general practice. He was admitted to the S.S.C. Society in 1892. He acted for a number of years as one of the Examiners of Law Agents, and resigned only a few weeks ago. THE death of Mr W. K. Macdonald, Town Clerk of Arbroath, occurred on 19th April. Mr Macdonald had been Town-Clerk of Arbroath for fifty-one years, and among other public offices which he held were the clerkships of the Harbour Trust, of Arbroath District Committee of Forfar County Council, of Arbroath and St. Vigeans Parish Council, and the Forfar Railway Company. In 1894 he gifted to Arbroath United Cricket Club the park they at present occupy, and in 1899 he presented a chain of office for the chief magistrate. Mr Macdonald was an Honorary Sheriff-Substitute for Forfarshire. Last year, on attaining his jubilee as town-clerk, he was presented with his portrait in oils, and the Town Council conferred on him the freedom of the burgh. Mr Macdonald was proprietor of the estate of Deuchars, Forfarshire, and of the estates of Ballantuim and Woodhill, Perthshire. He was unmarried. WE regret to record the death of Mr Charles Baxter, W.S., which took place in London on 1st May. He was the son of the late Mr Edmund Baxter, who held for many years the office of Auditor of the Court of Session. He was admitted to the Society of Writers to the Signet By H. BURN-MURDOCH, Esq., the reform of the procedure of the Court of Now that consideration is being given to Session, with a view to greater expedition, efficiency, and economy in the conduct of review the existing practice as to adjustment of litigation, it seems desirable to pass under records. It is thought that, in this connection, the objects desired might be attained in great measure by a comparatively small alteration of procedure. the record could probably, in many cases, be The frequent delays which occur in adjusting reduced or done away with. Moreover, the present lack of system conduces to careless and faulty pleading. Nearly thirty years ago the First Division found it necessary to advert to the careless wording of records and "the necessity for greater care on the part of counsel and agents at that stage of a process which consists in the closing of the record" (Morgan Gellibrand & Co. v. Dundee Gem Line Shipping Co. Ltd., 1890, 18 R. 205). It may be doubted whether any change for the better has since taken place. If a time-table is written down of the steps in an ordinary defended action, beginning with the date on which the summons is served, certain periods will at once be noticed during which, under existing rules, no step need be taken or progress made in adjusting the pleadings : There is no rule compelling either party to deliver his adjustments to the other side before they meet in the Adjustment Roll. Section 26 of the Court of Session Act 1868 provides that the Lord Ordinary shall on that day close the record. This provision is now steadily ignored and a first continuation is readily granted. It is certainly most desirable that there should be continuation until each party knows the final form of his opponent's case. Unfortunately, however, the interlocutor continuing the adjustment does not at present include any direction to the parties to deliver their adjustments, alternately, before they meet again in the Continued Adjustment Roll. Accordingly, then, they are too often no further advanced towards a final survey of their pleadings, whatever extension of time may have been granted by judicial indulgence. In the usual practice, the true closing of the pleadings takes place, not at the time of the Lord Ordinary's interlocutor but at an uncertain later time allowed by "facilities" and "honourable understandings," and limited only by the need for printing within four days. Even here another imperative rule is sometimes evaded, thus indefinitely prolonging the period for the final adjustment of the pleadings. It will be borne in mind that the most important alterations can be made by way of adjustment, short of substituting a different ground of action (Cairns v. Lee, 1892, 20 R. 16). Now, the closing of the record is recognised to be a judicial contract creating new obligations and extinguishing former rights (Ersk., Inst., IV. i70; Stair, IV. xl. 8). In every other contract the law requires consensus in idem placitum. Yet, in present practice, it is seldom that the record is finally completed until after it has been closed. If, for example, the case is sent to the Procedure Roll on the defender's motion, adjustments made by the pursuer at the same time, or shortly afterwards, may table a relevant and virtually fresh case. add to his own. If either party failed to conform with the normal time-table, owing, for example, to the inaccessibility of a witness, it would be his duty to satisfy the Court as to the reasons. In default, he might either be mulcted in expenses or left to amend on terms, according as the Lord Ordinary considered the most convenient course. If this principle were to become established, it would also receive effect in the event of a continuation being found necessary for special reasons. In such cases the interlocutor would appoint the [pursuer] to deliver his adjustments within days, and appoint the [defender] to deliver any consequential adjustments within days thereafter. The case would then be enrolled, say, two days later, and the record closed, actually as well as nominally. It is difficult to see what useful purpose is served by the nominal closing of the record before it is actually complete. So long as the Court refrains from exercising any compulsitor on the timeous delivery of adjustments it no doubt furnishes a vague anticipatory limit to further delays. But it is conceived that a revision of practice on the lines here suggested would lead to considerable improvement with regard to expedition as well as to effective and careful pleading. DECISIONS IN THE ENGLISH Pignatario v. Gilroy & Sons. Owing to this elasticity of adjustment, there is a tendency to lodge outline pleadings only in the first place, leaving many essentials to be filled in on adjustment. This renders it all the more urgent that provision should be made for delivery of the completing adjustments to the other side in ample time to permit of careful consideration and reply. Indeed, there is at SALE SALE OF GOODS-PASSING OF PROPERTY. present something like a premium upon dilatori--A. agreed to buy from B. 140 bags of rice for ness. A party may, without any penalty, delay delivery in fourteen days, and paid the price. delivery of his vital adjustments until the very The sellers sent the buyer a delivery order for morning on which the Adjustment, or Continued 125 bags, and asked him to send to their ware Adjustment, is in the Roll. As the Courts are house for fifteen bags. The buyer did not send naturally averse from second continuations, for the fifteen bags till four weeks had passed, counsel and agent for the other side, who may and in the meantime the fifteen bags were stolen. be in no way at fault, will find that they are Held that the bags had been appropriated to the left with insufficient time for consulting their contract by the sellers, and that the buyer's conclient and for careful framing of their conse- sent to the appropriation must be inferred from quential adjustments. his delay in sending for them, that the property in the goods had passed to the buyer, and that he was not entitled to maintain an action for damages for failure to deliver.-K.B. Div. (A. T. Lawrence and Rowlatt JJ.). 18th December 1918. if It might prove of great advantage to litigants an Act of Sederunt established a clear duty on each party alternately to deliver his adjust ments to the other side by specified dates. Thus, on the 25th day, six days after the defences have been lodged, the pursuer might fairly be called upon to deliver his consequential adjustments. Five days later, on the 30th day, the defender might lodge any consequential adjustments. Thereafter in the Adjustment Roll, on the OF GENERAL WORDS.-It is a general rule of 31st to 33rd day, each party should be in marine insurance law that where an assured a position to state that he had considered his desires to insure against unusual risks unconopponent's final pleadings and had nothing to nected with marine or war risks, he must T. Cheshire & Co. v. Thompson. MARINE INSURANCE-POLICY-CONSTRUCTION |