858 
SCOT 
last resort, inasmuch as the judgment on the facts by the 
Court of Session, when the matter has not been tried by 
jury, has the force of a verdict. When the verdict of the 
jury is returned, or the facts otherwise disposed of, the Lord 
Ordinary decides the cause, or takes it to report, as it is 
called, that is, to be decided at once by the Inner-House. 
If he decides it himself, the party dissatisfied carries it to the 
Inner-House by a reclaiming note, and prints the pleadings, 
called the record, which has been made up before the Lord 
Ordinary. On this record the court decide, after hearing 
counsel, either without or with farther written pleadings, in 
the form of concise cases, as they think fit. By these forms 
it is expected that written pleadings, which rendered the 
course of law cumbrous and tardy, will be very essentially 
abridged, and the Scottish bar be called to a greatly in¬ 
creased exercise of the more strictly forensic talent of viva 
voce statement. 
The Court of Session has another function or character. 
It is the Commission, as it is called, for the plantation of 
kirks and valuation of teinds. This commission was, after 
several temporary commissions, rendered perpetual by sta¬ 
tute 1709, c. 9. The whole fifteen judges sit in this court, 
and the old quorum of nine is requisite. Its meeting takes 
place every alternate Wednesday in Session time: and, as a 
distinct court, it has its own clerks, but is attended by the 
same practitioners. The act 1707 details its powers and 
duties. It regulates valuations and sales of teinds, augments 
the stipends of the clergy, disjoins or annexes parishes ac¬ 
cording to exigency, erects new churches, &c. The cases in 
this court go through their stages in the Outer-House before 
the Lord ordinary on the bills. 
There is a class of actions in which no discretion is left to 
the Lords Ordinary of the Court of Session, to send or not to 
send, wholly or partially, the facts to be tried by jury. 
Cases of this class, although they must all originate in the 
Court of Session, (for the Jury Court has not been raised 
higher than a sort of accessory although supreme court,) 
must be sent at once for entire trial and determination to the 
Jury Court, without remaining longer in the Court of Ses¬ 
sion than passing through the form of being remitted, with¬ 
out any previous discussion of law or relevancy. This class 
of cases embraces actions of damages for injury to the per¬ 
son, both real and verbal, as assault and defamation, for 
injury to patrimonial rights, for breach of contract, for in¬ 
jury by delinquency and quasi delinquency ; all actions on 
the responsibility of carriers, ship-owners, inn-keepers, ac¬ 
tions to abate nuisances; all actions of reduction on furiosity, 
idiocy, facility, lesion, force or fear; all actions on insur¬ 
ance of all kinds, on charter parties, &c. Such of this class 
of cases as must originate in the Court of Admiralty, must 
likewise be sent at once to the Jury Court, provided the 
amount shall be £40 and upwards. The Judge Admiral, 
like the Lord Ordinary, has an option to remit or not cases 
not of this class. The Jury Court have the power to remit 
back points of law in the class of cases allotted to if, to the 
Lord Ordinary or Judge Admiral. When points of law are 
sent back to the court, the facts come again to be tried in 
the Jury Court. If in the Jury Court the facts are ad¬ 
mitted on both sides, and trial of them unnecessary, the 
case is sent back for decision by the courts from which it 
came. 
From the year 1815, when the trial by jury in civil cases 
commenced till the passing of an act in 1825, the judges of 
the Jury Court were only three in number; a chief commis¬ 
sioner and two ordinary commissioners, called Lord Com¬ 
missioners of the Jury Court in civil causes, and eligible from 
the Lords of Session or Barons of Exchequer, with the ex¬ 
ception of the Chief, who must be qualified to be appointed 
a Lord of Session. By the late act two additional ordinary 
commissioners have been added to the number. The Jury 
Court has its terms and sittings, after the manner of the 
courts in England; andthe judges travel circuits twice a-year, 
nearly at the same time with the Lords of Justiciary. The 
trial itself is conducted pretty nearly upon the English model. 
The jurymen are twelve in number, chosen by ballot from a 
LAND. 
list returned by the Sheriff, and they are required to agree in 
their verdict. 
The Court of 'Exchequer is the court of the revenue. It 
was remodelled at the Union on the English form, and 
consists of the Lord High Treasurer of Great Britain, a 
chief baron, and three ordinary or puisne barons, who 
must be either serjeants at law, or English barristers, 
or Scots advocates of four years standing. This court 
has a peculiar jurisdiction as to all duties of custom or excise, 
and other revenues pertaining either to the king or prince 
of Scotland, and as to all honours and estates real and per¬ 
sonal, forfeitures or penalties of what nature soever arising 
to the Crown within Scotland; and as to all questions re¬ 
lating to the said matters which they are authorised to deter¬ 
mine either in law or equity by the same forms that have 
been used in the English Exchequer. By the 3d Geo. IV. 
c. 91., the jurisdiction of this court has been increased by 
the power to judge in all complaints by burgesses against 
borough magistrates in relation to their administration of the 
revenue or common good of the borough. Although this 
court judges by the forms of the English Court of Exchequer, 
the real estate of the debtor must be attached, and all ques¬ 
tions regarding it determined by the rules of the law of 
Scotland ; and when the Crown’s title to honours or lands 
is disputed, the Court of Session is the proper jurisdiction. 
The High Court of Admiralty, though styled an inferior 
court, is only relatively to the Court of Session, which has 
the power of reviewing its decrees: but it is a supreme court 
in respect of its exclusive jurisdiction, in the first instance, 
in what are strictly maritime causes, such as freight, salvage, 
charter party,damage done at sea; wrecks, &c. It has also, 
cumulatively with the Court of Session, jurisdiction in mer¬ 
cantile cases, such as bills of exchange, contracts, insurance, 
&c„ provided the issue be not of less value than £25, (1 & 
2. Geo. IV. c. 39.) As already stated when treating of the 
Jury Court, the Judge Admiral may remit certain cases, and 
must remit others to that court for trial (6 Geo. IV. c. 120.) 
The same act takes expressly from the High Court of Ad¬ 
miralty of Scotland, and vests in that of England, all ju¬ 
risdiction “ in questions and matters relating to prizes and 
capture in war, and condemnation of vessels as such, any 
law or practice to the contrary notwithstanding.” The Vice- 
Admiral, or now rather the High Court of Admiralty, has the 
power of naming inferior deputies, with local jurisdictions, 
whose sentences are subject to review by the high court. 
The magistrates of Edinburgh claim an independent right of 
admiralty in the port of Leith, emanating from the crown, 
and not from the Court of Admiralty or the Vice-Admiral. 
This matter is disputed by the Judge Admiral, and is not 
yet determined. The High Court of Admiralty can review 
its own judgments, even after extracted decree, and that 
both by suspension and reduction. This power alone is 
sufficient to constitute this judicatory supreme, although its 
decrees are subject to review in the Court of Session. 
The Commissary Court was an ecclesiastical court before 
the Reformation. Its present powers are defined by 4 Geo. 
IV. c. 97. The jurisdiction of the Commissary Court is 
privative, in the first instance, in all consistorial causes, as 
questions of marriage, divorce, separation, legitimacy, con¬ 
firmation of testaments, and cumulative with that of the 
sheriffs and other civil courts, in actions of slander, aliment 
of wives, sealing the repositories of deceased persons, &c. 
The jurisdiction formerly exercised by the Commissary 
Court in questions of debt, is taken away by the said statute. 
The Judge Ordinary of the county, under the name of 
Sheriff Depute, who is appointed by the Crown, and is 
altogether independent of the High Sheriff, presides in the 
Sheriff Court. His power is both judicial and ministerial. 
His judicial power, as a civil judge, is exercised in “all 
personal actions upon contract, bond, or obligation, to the 
greatest extent, whether the suit be brought against the 
debtor himself or his representatives; in actions of rent and 
of forthcoming; in poindings of the ground; and even in 
adjudication of lands when it proceeds upon the renuncia¬ 
tion of the apparent heir; in all possessory actions, as re- 
mo vings. 
