Advocate General v Garioch
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 22 January 1850 |
| Date | 22 January 1850 |
| Docket Number | No. 87 |
| Year | 1850 |
| Court | Court of the King's Bench |
Crown—Public Burden.—
THE question here raised was the liability of Crown lands in Orkney to prison tax and rogue money, under the statutes 2d and 3d Victoria, caps. 42 and 65, in which it is enacted that these assessments should be levied with the land-tax, and on all property contained in the valuation books of the County. The Crown lands in question were contained in the valuation roll, and had always paid land-tax and rogue money from its first imposition by 11th Geo. I., cap. 26. Garioch, the defender, was the collector of the prison assessment for the County.
The history and tenure of the lands, the statutes founded on, and the arguments for the parties, will be found in the opinions of the Judges.
The property of the Crown is exempt from any assessments of a public nature, unless it be specially made liable therefor by Act of Parliament. 2. Held that lands belonging to the Crown, although included in the valuation roll of the County, and although the land-tax had been paid therefrom ever since its first imposition, were not liable for the prison assessment, or rogue money, under the statutes 2d and 3d Vict., caps. 42 and 65; in which it was enacted, that these assessments should be levied with the land-tax, and on all property contained in the valuation books of the County.
∗ Decided January 27, 1845.
∗ It is more than probable that, prior to annexation, these bishop's lands must have been liable to taxation, as a part of the ecclesiastical estate of the realm; and so far this might, as to land-tax, raise a question with the Crown, analogous to that which occurred in Bruce, &c. But, prior to 1643, this could hardly have been on any valuation in the county books. For the spiritual estate was, down to that year, taxed separately from the temporal, and, as I understand, always with reference to the Ancient Bagimont Boll. Even subsequent to 1643 (with the exception of a brief interval, terminating in 1661), the same course of taxation was resumed. And as the lands here in question were all annexed prior to 1689, it is not easy to say how the different portions of them may have stood in this respect at the respective periods of their annexation.
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Lord Advocate v Dumbarton District Council
...as the Court of Exchequer in England has used or practised to do in like cases in England." Thus in Advocate-General v. Garioch (1850) 12 D. 447 the Scottish Court of Exchequer held that the Crown was not liable for national taxation. Other cases decided that the Crown was exempt from local......