Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was a petition presented on 16th May 1906 by Frederick Cecil Pheysey, distiller's clerk, residing at 3 Elms Road, Clapham, in the county of London.

The petitioner stated—“That the petitioner was, on 21st June 1901, married in Glasgow to Marguerite Horton Rutherford, then residing at 2 Ailsa Terrace, Hillhead, Glasgow. The petitioner was then a minor, being twenty years of age, and his said wife was two years his senior. The marriage took place by declaration before the Sheriff of Lanarkshire at Glasgow, upon a petition presented to him on behalf of and signed by both the contracting parties, who on same date also signed the register of marriages for the district of Blythswood, Glasgow. At the date of said marriage the petitioner was and has continued to be a domiciled Englishman. That on or about 11th January 1904 the petitioner's said wife, in the name and under the description of Marguerite Horton Rutherford, spinster, contracted a bigamous marriage with Henry Edward Cosgreave at St Mary's Church, Wednesbury, in the district of West Bromwich, and the petitioner's said wife and the said Henry Edward Cosgreave have since lived and cohabited as man and wife at 19 Egerton Gardens, West Ealing, in the county of Middlesex. That on or about 21st December 1905 the petitioner brought an action in the Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice in England for a dissolution of his marriage with the said Marguerite Horton Rutherford, founding upon her adultery with the said Henry Edward Cosgreave. To said action the petitioner's said wife (calling herself Marguerite Horton Cosgreave) has filed an answer in which she, inter alia, stated she never was the wife of the petitioner. The said action is set down for trial, and it is anticipated will be reached in the course of the present month. That the said petition and relative declaration and warrant by the Sheriff, and the said principal marriage certificate or schedule, are in the custody at Edinburgh of the Registrar-General for Scotland, and being required to establish the petitioner's marriage, the present application is therefore made to your Lordships for authority to have the volumes containing the same, viz. (1) register of marriages for the district of Blythswood, Glasgow, for the year 1901, and (2) marriage schedules for the district of Blythswood, Glasgow, for the year 1901, exhibited before the said Division of the High Court of Justice in England, under the custody of an officer to be selected by the Registrar-General, and by whom the said volumes shall be restored to the custody of the Registrar-General. A copy of this petition has been duly intimated to the Registrar-General.”

The petitioner prayed the Court “to grant warrant to and authorise the said Registrar-General, or any officer duly authorised by him, to convey the said volumes containing the said petition and relative declaration and warrant by the Sheriff, and the said marriage certificate or schedule, to London, and there to exhibit

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the same in the said High Court of Justice—Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division—at the said trial,” &c.

No appearance was made for the Registrar-General.

Counsel in moving that the prayer of the petition be granted referred to Mackenzie, Petitioner, February 8, 1902, 4 F. 559, 39 S.L.R. 390; Earl of Euston, Petitioner, December 5, 1883, 11 R. 235, 21 8.L.R. 170. [Lord Low—Are there not in this case the same safeguards as in an application at the instance of the Crown?—(A) Yes.]

The Court (the Lord Justice-Clerk, Lord Stormonth Darling, and Lord Low, absent Lord Kyllachy) granted the prayer of the petition.