BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you
consider making a contribution?
No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £1, it
will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free
access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!
You are here:BAILII >>
Databases >>
Scottish Court of Session Decisions >>
Robert Murdoch v Hyslop. [1696] 4 Brn 348 (25 December 1696)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1696/Brn040348-0735.html
Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL.
Robert Murdoch v. Hyslop
Date: 25 December 1696
Click here to view a pdf copy of this documet : PDF Copy
In the mutual declarators pursued betwixt Robert Murdoch, writer, and one Hyslop, a wright, of the property of a piece void ground, lying beneath the piazzas, on the High Street of Edinburgh; the one claiming it as pertaining to his shop, and the other claiming it in right of his adjacent cellar; the Lords, after balancing the pretences of both parties, found neither of them had a right of property in this inconsiderable controverted piece of ground, but that it was usus communis, being a locus publicus, and a highway, and passage to all the lieges, as much as the High Street and causeway is; and appointed for people retiring to shelter under them in time of rain, as the ground under fore stairs is, and ought not to be enhanced or built up to the prejudice of the public convenience. So both the contenders lost the cause, and the Town, who were not competing, gained it.
