Scottish Court of Session Decisions

The pursuer Elizabeth Beattie, a dressmaker, was married in 1836 to the late William Pagan, son of the defender John Pagan. He had recently passed as solicitor, and he died in 1837, leaving his wife in indigent circumstances. Mrs Pagan was delivered of a posthumous child, and thereafter along with the infant (a girl), she brought a process of aliment against John Pagan, who was a hosier in Dumfries, and alleged to be wealthy, concluding for aliment to herself and the child jointly, to the extent of £100 per annum.

In his defences to the action Pagan stated that he was willing to relieve Mrs Pagan of the expense of alimenting the child, and would take it into his own house to be cared for in his family; and he pleaded—

1. The defender is under no obligation, either in law or otherwise, to provide aliment for the pursuer Mrs Pagan.

2. The demand for separate aliment, on account of the defender's grandchild, is excluded by his offer to take the child into his own family.

3. At least, if the pursuer will not agree to the defender's proposal to take the child into his own house and family, her claim for separate aliment ought to be limited to a small sum on account of the child only; and that sum falls to be fixed according to the requirements of the child, and the situation of its own parents, and not by the supposed opulence of the defender.

Thereafter, Mrs Pagan not consenting that the child should live separately from her, the defender offered a sum of £20 per annum as aliment for the child alone, which was not accepted.