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Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907

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Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act, 1907

(7 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 51.

An Act to regulate and amend the Laws and practice relating to the civil procedure in Sheriff Courts in Scotland, and for other purposes.

[28th August 1907]

B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

Preliminary .

Preliminary .

S-1 Short title.

1 Short title.

1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as theSheriff Courts (Scotland) Act, 1907.

S-2 Commencement.

2 Commencement.

2. Unless otherwise specially enacted this Act shall come into operation on the first day of January one thousand nine hundred and eight.

S-3 Interpretation.

3 Interpretation.

3. In construing this Act (unless where the context is repugnant to such construction)—

a ) ‘Sheriff’ includes sheriff-substitute
b ) ‘Tenant’ includes sub-tenant
c ) ‘Lease’ includes sub-lease;
d ) ‘Action’ includes every civil proceeding competent in the ordinary sheriff court;
e ) ‘Person’ includes company, corporation, or association and firm of any description nominate or descriptive, or any Board corporate or unincorporate;
f ) ‘Sheriff clerk’ includes sheriff-clerk depute;
g ) ‘Agent’ means a law-agent enrolled in terms of the Law Agents (Scotland) Act, 1873;
h ) ‘Final judgment’ means an interlocutor which, by itself, or taken along with previous interlocutors, disposes of the subject-matter of the cause, notwithstanding that judgment may not have been pronounced on every question raised, and that expenses found due may not have been modified, taxed, or decerned for;
i ) ‘Summary cause’ includes—

(1) Actions (except applications under the Workmen's Compensation Act and actions with conclusions ad factum praestandum) for payment of money exceeding twenty pounds, and not exceeding fifty pounds, exclusive of interest and expenses;

(2) Actions of whatever kind (except applications under the Workmen's Compensation Act and actions under the Small Debt Acts) notwithstanding that the value may exceed fifty pounds, in which the parties consent to the action being treated as a summary cause;

j ) ‘Small Debt Acts’ means and includes the Small Debt (Scotland) Acts, 1837 to 1889, and Acts explaining or amending the same;
k ) ‘Initial writ’ means the statement of claim, petition, note of appeal, or other document by which the action is initiated;
l ) ‘Procurator-Fiscal’ means procurator-fiscal in the sheriff-court;
m ) ‘Workmen's Compensation Act’ means the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1906, and any Acts explaining or amending the same;
n ) ‘Pursuer’ means and includes any person making a claim or demand, or seeking any warrant or order competent in the sheriff court;
o ) ‘Defender’ means and includes any person who is required to be called in any action;
p ) ‘Summary application’ means and includes all applications of a summary nature brought under the common law jurisdiction of the sheriff, and all applications, whether by appeal or otherwise, brought under any Act of Parliament which provides, or, according to any practice in the sheriff court, which allows that the same shall be disposed of in a summary manner, but which does not more particularly define in what form the same shall be heard, tried, and determined.

Jurisdiction .

Jurisdiction .

S-4 Jurisdiction.

4 Jurisdiction.

4. The jurisdiction of the sheriffs, within their respective sheriffdoms shall extend to and include all navigable rivers, ports, harbours, creeks, shores, and anchoring grounds in or adjoining such sheriffdoms. And the powers and jurisdictions formerly competent to the High Court of Admiralty in Scotland in all maritime causes and proceedings, civil and criminal, including such as may apply to persons furth of Scotland, shall be competent to the sheriffs, provided the defender shall upon any legal ground of jurisdiction be amenable to the jurisdiction of the sheriff before whom such cause or proceeding may be raised, and provided also that it shall not be competent to the sheriff to try any crime committed on the seas which it would not be competent for him to try if the crime had been committed on land: Provided always that where sheriffdoms are separated by a river, firth, or estuary, the sheriffs on either side shall have concurrent jurisdictions over the intervening space occupied by water.

S-5 Extension of jurisdiction.

5 Extension of jurisdiction.

5. Nothing herein contained shall derogate from any jurisdiction, powers, or authority presently possessed or in use to be exercised by the sheriffs of Scotland, and such jurisdiction shall extend to and include—

(1) Actions of declarator (except declarators of marriage or nullity of marriage, and actions the direct or main object of which is to determine the personal status of individuals):

(2) Actions of aliment, or of separation and aliment, and for regulating the custody of children:

(3) Actions of division of commonty and of division or division and sale of common property, in which cases the Act of 1695 concerning the division of commonties shall be read and construed as if it conferred jurisdiction upon the sheriff court in the same manner as upon the Court of Session:

(4) Actions relating to questions of heritable right or title (except actions of adjudication save in so far as now competent and actions of reduction) including all actions of declarator of irritancy and removing, whether at the instance of a superior against a vassal or of a landlord against a tenant:

(5) Suspension of charges or threatened charges upon the decrees of court granted by the sheriff or upon decrees of registration proceeding upon bonds, bills, contracts or other obligations registered in the books of the sheriff court, the books of council and session, or any others competent where the debt exclusive of interest and expenses does not exceed fifty pounds:

Provided that actions relating to questions of heritable right or title, including irritancy and removing, or to division of commonties or division or divisions and sale of common property shall, if raised in the sheriff court, be raised in the sheriff court of the jurisdiction and district where the property forming the subject in dispute is situated, and all parties against whom any such action may be brought shall in such action be subject to that jurisdiction: Provided also that it shall be competent for either party at the closing of the record or within six days thereafter to require the cause to be remitted to the Court of Session in the case of actions—

a ) Relating to questions of heritable right and title where the value of the subject in dispute exceeds fifty pounds by the year or one thousand pounds in value;
b ) Relating to the right of succession moveables where the value of the subject in dispute exceeds one thousand pounds:
c ) Relating to division of commonty or division or division and sale of common property where the value of the subject in dispute exceeds fifty pounds by the year or one thousand pounds value:

Provided also that on cause shown or ex proprio motu the sheriff may at any stage remit to the Court of Session any action of separation and aliment or relating to the custody of children.

S-6 Action competent in sheriff court.

6 Action competent in sheriff court.

6. Any action competent in the sheriff court may be brought within the jurisdiction of the sheriff—

a ) Where the defender (or when there are several defenders where one of them) resides within the jurisdiction, or having resided there for at least forty days immediately prior to the raising of the action has ceased to reside there for less than forty days and whose present residence in Scotland is unknown
b ) Where the defender carries on business, and has a place of business within the sheriffdom, and is cited either personally or at such place of business:
c ) Where the defender is a person not otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Scotland, and a ship or vessel of which he is owner or part owner or master, or goods, debts, money, or other moveable property belonging to him, have been arrested within the jurisdiction:
d ) Where the defender is the owner or part owner or tenant or joint...

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