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Scottish Court of Session Decisions >>
Purdie and Company v Magistrates of Montrose. [1786] Mor 11757 (29 June 1786)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1786/Mor2811757-080.html Cite as:
[1786] Mor 11757
Power, - Duty, - Liability of Magistrates relative to Prisoners.
Purdie and Company v. Magistrates of Montrose
Date: 29 June 1786 Case No. No 80.
Magistrates of a burgh found liable for the escape of a prisoner.
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Hay, a debtor of Purdie and Company, having been incarcerated, at their instance, in the prison of Montrose, made his escape from thence in the daytime, by picking the lock of the door of the apartment in which he was lodged,
The Creditors brought an action against the Magistrates for payment of the debt, in terms of the act of sederunt of 11th February 1671.
The Lord Ordinary pronounced this interlocutor: ‘In respect it is not denied, that upon Sunday, 27th June 1784, when Hay made his escape, the prison of Montrose was kept and secured in the usual way in which it had been kept and secured for many years past, and that the said escape was made by picking a padlock upon an iron lattice-door of the said prison, as to which padlock, no former apparent insufficiency is alleged, assoilzies the defenders.”
But the Court altered that judgment, and found the Magistrates liable for the debt.
Lord Ordinary, Henderland.Act. Baillie.Alt. Dean of Faculty & J. Erskine.Clerk, Colquhoun
Fol. Dic. v. 4. p. 136. Fac. Col. No 285. p. 440.
