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Letters Patent that the Lord Lyon officially recognises the applicant petitioner as "baron of" the barony in question. Rather, the Letters Patent will in future simply state that the petitioner "being within the jurisdiction of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms – he assigns Armorial Bearings" ("the Disputed Wording"). At the request of the pursuer's agents, the date for this new policy was postponed, and it came into effect on 1 March 2018, providing an additional eight weeks' notice. In submissions, it was explained that since that date, the defender has received only three petitions to which the new policy was applicable, one of which was thereafter withdrawn. No Letters Patent have yet been prepared in relation to the other two petitions to him.
[30] The defender's position, in short, is that the change effected by the Disputed Wording was within the wide discretion of the Lord Lyon. The pursuer contends it is a breach of paragraph 4 of the Agreement. The Letters Patent were the only document in which the defender could give official recognition of a dignity using the desiderated wording.
Outline of parties' arguments
[31] The pursuer seeks to enforce paragraph 4 of the Agreement, which is said to have been breached by the Lord Lyon adopting the Disputed Wording. The pursuer's action is resisted on a variety of fronts, which, in turn has prompted counter-arguments from the pursuer. In outline:
- 1. The defender argues that the provisions of the Agreement on which the pursuer relies did not create obligations enforceable by the pursuer.
