Scottish Court of Session Decisions

Marion Leonard became the mother of two illegitimate children by George Watt, who was a married man with a family. For some time after the birth of the first child, he paid aliment at the rate of £4. But, upon the birth of the second child, he refused to make farther payment at all, and Leonard, after some litigation, obtained decree against him for £30, being arrears of aliment, &c., and expenses of process. She did diligence on the decree, and Watt, after having been alimented for some time in jail, brought a process of cessio, during the dependence of which he was liberated. He was the son of a substantial farmer, with whom he worked as a servant, and received £20, 16s. per annum of wages. He owed no debts except to Leonard. He pleaded, that, having been alimented by the defender in prison, lie was entitled to obtain the cessio, because the diligence of incarceration in such circumstances defeated the only legitimate object of a creditor, by increasinga debt which the debtor was unable to pay. Leonard answered, that he could only obtain the cessio on finding caution for aliment to the children, ¹ and the refusal exposed him to no hardship, as he was now at liberty. The Court “found the pursuer entitled to the benefit of the cessio, on his finding sufficient caution to pay two shillings per week to the mother of the illegitimate children.”