BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you consider making a contribution?

No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £1, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!



BAILII [Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback]

Scottish Court of Session Decisions


You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> Scottish Court of Session Decisions >> British Fisheries Society v. Henderson [1866] ScotLR 1_191_1 (27 February 1866)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1866/01SLR0191_1.html
Cite as: [1866] ScotLR 1_191_1, [1866] SLR 1_191_1

[New search] [Printable PDF version] [Help]


SCOTTISH_SLR_Court_of_Session

Page: 191

Court of Session Inner House First Division.

1 SLR 191_1

British Fisheries Society

v.

Henderson.

Subject_1Police Assessment
Subject_2Exemption.

Facts:

Suspension of a general police assessment in a county on the ground that the parties charged appointed and paid, under special Acts, police constables of their own, refused, there being no exemption in their favour either express or implied.

Headnote:

This is a suspension of an assessment sought to be levied from the complainers as owners of the harbour of Pulteneytown by the Commissioners of Supply for the county of Caithness, in virtue of the powers conferred by 20 and 21 Vict., cap. 72, to establish a police force in the county. The ground of suspension was that under various private Acts under which the complainers are incorporated, they had the power to appoint, and had in point of fact appointed, police constables of their own. But neither the private Acts nor the public Act conferred any exemption on the complainers from the assessment complained of, and the Lord Ordinary (Jerviswoode) refused the suspension, there being no presumption in favour of special pleas of exemption from taxation. He was unable to observe any statutory provision adequate to secure the exemption claimed. It might be that under this view the complainers were more heavily burdened as respects the matter of police than others around them; but the local causes, the existence of

Page: 192

which has led the Legislature to confer special powers on the complainers to keep up a constabulary of their own within certain limits, may be such as not, even in equity, to lead to the conclusion that they ought in consequence to be exempted from the more general county assessment.

The suspenders reclaimed; but the Court to-day, without calling for a reply, adhered.

Counsel:

Counsel for Suspenders— Mr Clark and Mr Duncan. Agents— Messrs Horne, Horne, & Lyell, W.S.

Counsel for Respondent—The Solicitor-General and Mr Millar. Agent— Mr G. L. Sinclair, W.S.

1866


BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Donate to BAILII
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1866/01SLR0191_1.html