HERITORS AND KIRK-SESSION OF KILMORICH v JOHN BEITH (Court of Session)

The parish then advocated, and the Lord Ordinary having appointed the minutes of debate to be revised, made avisandum with the cause to the Court, adding the annexed note:

A person who is disabled from earning his bread by lunacy , which is the act of God, or who, by such lunacy and its effects, renders himself so dangerous to society that it is necessary to put him in confinement, and who has no known relations able to maintain him, must be considered as in the same situation with any other pauper who, from other causes, is disabled from living by his own means or labour. The Lord Ordinary believes that this, as a general proposition, must be universally admitted.

Where information is given to a procurator-fiscal, that a person is believed to be insane, and has done things which, apparently proceeding from such insanity, afford evidence of danger of some serious mischief, it is his duty to inquire into the case, and, if necessary, to apply to the Sheriff, who by law and statute has power, upon clear proof that the person is in a state of insanity, by a regular judgment, to order such person to be put in safe custody. And if he or she is a pauper, it is beyond all doubt that the parish of settlement must bear the expense of aliment.

It may be proper for the Lord Ordinary to state, in conclusion, that having requested the aid of the Lord Justice-Clerk's notes, before whom the pauper Boyd was brought for trial, he sees that it was clearly proved that his state of mental imbecility or insanity existed long before the time when the act on which he was indicted was committed.

The Lord Ordinary does not advert to any question as to the amount of the claim of relief, which may possibly involve another doubtful point.’