Pounding

Pounding (same root as Eng. pound), in the law of Scotland, means the seizing and selling of a debtor's goods under process of law, or under the warrant of a heritable security, in order to pay the debt. It is either real or personal. Real pounding is the attaching of goods or movables on the land over which some heritable security exists. It is one mode in which heritable security is made effectual. Thus, the superior of lands can pound the ground to obtain payment of his feu-duties; and the holder of a heritable bond can do the same in order to recover his debt. Personal pounding is the mode in which a decree of the court is made effectual by the messenger or bailiff seizing the movables of the debtor. It may not proceed until the debtor has been charged to pay the debt and the days of charge have elapsed. The debtor's goods being pointed, they are appraised or valued, and the messenger reports his execution to the sheriff, or other judge ordinary, who grants warrant to sell the goods by public roup after advertisements. The net amount of the sale is paid over to the creditor, or, if no purchaser bid for them, they are delivered to the creditor at the appraised value. There is also another kind of pointing, called a pointing of stray cattle, which takes place whenever the cattle of a stranger trespass on lands, in which case the owner or occupier of the lands can seize them at his own hand, without judicial warrant, and keep them as a security until the damage done by the cattle is paid to the owner of the land. The pointer must, however, take care to keep the cattle in a proper place, and feed them. In England the word pointing is not used, the corresponding term being Distress (q.v.).