The Poor Law (Scotland) Act 1898, section 5, enacts-‘(1) Whenever any parish council shall have obtained, in terms of the Poor Law Removal Act 1862, a warrant for the removal from any parish in Scotland to England or Ireland of any English-born or Irish-born poor person who has not acquired a settlement by residence in Scotland, and to whom the immediately preceding section does not apply, such poor person, if he or she shall have resided continuously in such parish for not less than one year before the date of the application for relief (her deceased husband’s residence, if necessary, being reckoned as part of her residence in the case of a widow), may, within fourteen days after intimation of the granting of such warrant and of the right to appeal in this sub-section mentioned, appeal to the Local Government Board, which Board shall without delay investigate the grounds of such appeal and determine whether it is reasonable and proper that such poor person shall be so removed. The inspector of poor of the parish whence the poor person is proposed to be removed shall be bound to intimate to the poor person the granting of the warrant and the right of appeal; and no warrant in terms of the Poor Law Removal Act 1862 shall be carried out until the expiry of the said fourteen days, or, if an appeal is taken, until it has been disposed of by the Board. (2) In the case of a poor person as in the preceding sub-section mentioned, the inspector of poor shall also be bound to send by registered letter a notice to the clerk to the board of guardians of the union or parish in England or Ireland named in the warrant of removal that if they desire they may, within fourteen days after the receipt of such notice, appeal to the Local Government Board against the removal, and shall with such notice transmit a copy of the depositions taken before the sheriff granting the warrant; and if the board of guardians shall so appeal, the Local Government Board shall without delay investigate the grounds of such appeal and determine whether it is reasonable and proper that such poor person shall be removed. No warrant in terms of the Poor Law Removal Act 1862 shall be carried out until the expiry of the said fourteen days, or, if an appeal is taken, until it is disposed of by the Board.’
Held (1) that the condition attached to the right of appeal conferred in subsection (1), ‘if he or she shall have resided continuously in such parish for not less than one year before the date of the application for relief,’ did not attach to the right of appeal conferred by sub-section (2) on the board of guardians; and (2) that the word ‘resided’ was to be taken in its ordinary meaning of ‘lived’ and not as requiring the intelligent residence necessary in the case of acquiring a settlement.
Judges:
Earl Loreburn, Lord Kinnear, Lord Dunedin, Lord Atkinson, Lord Parker, Lord Sumner, and Lord Parmoor
Citations:
[1915] UKHL 335, 52 SLR 335
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Local Government
Updated: 26 April 2022; Ref: scu.620676
