Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Subject_Contract—

Clause.—This was a case of a special nature. The Cranstonhill Water Works Company had acquired ground from Logan, the author of Henry Houldsworth of Cranstonhill, under a restriction from erecting buildings, but with a privilege, in case the works should be abandoned, of obliging the proprietor of Cranstonhill for the time, to take the ground back at the rate of 3s. per square yard, at any time within ten years from the date of the contract. An option was given to the proprietor of Cranstonhill to refuse the ground, and to leave the Company at liberty to build on it, under certain restrictions. After the lapse of the ten years a question arose, in consequence of ambiguous and apparently conflicting provisions in the contract, whether the Company were still entitled to insist, that Houldsworth should either take back the ground at the price above-mentioned, or at least leave the Company at liberty to erect buildings on the ground. Houldsworth denied their right to insist in either conclusion, and they raised a declarator against him, from which he was assoilzied, first by the Lord Ordinary, and afterwards by the Court.