Waddell v. Whyte

Held that these sections impose no perpetual limitation upon the height of the buildings in the street, for which, thereunder, the Dean of Guild has granted a lining, and consequently that it is competent for the Dean of Guild to grant warrant to an applicant under section 364 of the statute for the erection of buildings other than dwelling-houses 70 feet high in a public street 60 feet in width, on the laying-out of which 24 years previously it was proposed by the applicant to erect buildings only 60 feet high.

Robert Davidson Waddell, sausagemaker, Glasgow, applied to the Dean of Guild Court of that city for warrant and decree of lining for the erection of business premises in the place of certain existing buildings on the west side of Napiershall Street and north side of North Woodside Road.

The petitioner in answer referred to the statute, averred that the buildings for which warrant was granted in 1872 were dwelling-houses, whereas the building proposed to be erected by him was not a dwelling-house, and maintained that the objections were irrelevant.

Section 364—“Every person who intends to erect any building within the city or to alter any such building … in a manner which will affect the exterior dimensions thereof … shall make application to the Dean of Guild for a warrant to do so.”

On 24th December 1896 the Dean of Guild pronounced an interlocutor, in which, after certain findings in fact, he found “that it is not incompetent for the Dean of Guild to grant warrant for the erection of buildings of the description proposed;” therefore repelled the objections and granted warrant as craved.