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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

REDUCE, v. Sc. Law usage: to set aside by a legal process, to annul (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 73).Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 251:
The Lords of Session may not only reduce the Decreets of all inferior courts, but also may reduce their own Decrees.Sc. 1741 Acts of Sederunt (1790) 365:
[The Lordships] find the Discharge under improbation is false, forged and counterfeited, and therefore improve and reduce the same and decern.Fif. 1768 D. Cook Annals Pittenweem 149:
The former magistrates and council, whose election was reduced and set aside by decreet of the Court of Session.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 829:
The object of this class of actions . . . is to reduce and set aside deeds, services, decrees, and rights.Sc. 1865 Glasgow Herald (25 March):
His first thought was to have the marriage settlement reduced.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 462:
Rescissory actions are those which cut down or reduce a right, or an apparent right, acquired by the defender.Sc. 1931 Encycl. Laws Scot. XII. 351:
Where a decision either of the Supreme or inferior Courts cannot for any reason be appealed against in one or other of the ordinary modes, it may sometimes be brought under review by an action to reduce the decree.Sc. 1947 Scotsman (8 July):
The decree of general service in favour of the first parties being reduced on the appearance of a nearer heir than the first parties.

Hence derivs.: 1. reducible, of a deed, decree, etc.: capable of being set aside by a legal process; 2. reduction, the process of reducing or annulling a deed, decree, etc. Also in combs.: †reduction-improbation, a reduction sought on grounds of forgery (Sc. 1946 A. D. Gibb Legal Terms 73). See Improbation; reduction-reductive, the annulling of a decree of reduction which has been obtained improperly (Ib.).1. Sc. 1744 Falconer Decisions 28:
Supposing the Deeds reducible of their own Nature, they must be supported from the Pursuer's Consent.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles i. vii. 35:
No deed, granted with consent of the interdicters, is reducible.Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 832:
All deeds executed by a minor . . . are reducible on the head of minority and lesion.Sc. 1888 Sc. Law Times Rep. LIX. 4:
To determine whether the marriage contract is reducible.2. Sc. 1700 Fountainhall Decisions II. 88:
Anna Aird, his nice and nearest of kin to him raises a reduction upon the head of fatuity and idiotry.Sc. 1722 W. Forbes Institutes I. ii. 248:
When Reasons of Suspension consist in Fact, . . . a Day will be in some Cases assigned for proving thereof. . . . The Suspender, that he may be allowed to prove such Reasons, doth at the same Time with the Suspension, raise and execute a Summons of Reduction against the Charger.Sc. 1773 Erskine Institute iv. i. 19:
The most effectual method of setting aside Deeds granted to one's prejudice, is by the action of reduction-improbation.Sc. 1785 H. Arnot Crim. Trials 282:
When the forgery appears to the Court to be of so deep a nature as to deserve a capital punishment, they declare the deed in question to be reduced, as being false and forged; and remit the prisoner to the Court of Justiciary: This sentence is called a “Decreet of Reduction and Improbation, and Act and Remit.”Sc. 1838 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 829:
The action of simple reduction and the action of reduction-improbation, are the two varieties of the rescissory actions of the law of Scotland.Sc. 1896 W. K. Morton Manual 462:
Actions of “proper improbation” and of “reduction-improbation” referred to by Erskine, are obsolete, and only simple actions of Reduction are now known. The peculiarity of such actions is that they call upon the defender to produce in Court the deed constituting the right sought to be reduced, in order that it may be set aside, under the penalty of its being set aside on failure to produce it.Sc. 1937 St Andrews Cit. (14 Aug.) 11:
The proper course would not be appeal, but an action for reduction — that is suspension of the whole proceedings.Sc. 1957 Scotsman (28 Feb.) 8:
If a rent tribunal acted without jurisdiction under existing law the only remedy was an action of reduction in the Court of Session, which was an expensive business.