Public Health (Scotland) Act 1897

154 Form of applications to the sheriff, &c.

All applications to enforce any provision of this Act, or for the recovery of penalties herein imposed, or other sums of money becoming due to the local authority in virtue of this Act, in so far as not herein otherwise provided for, may be by summary petition, and such petition may refer to the sections of this Act on which it is founded, without. setting forth the same; and the sheriff; magistrate, or justice shall thereupon, if he see fit, appoint the petition to be answered within three days after service, or may order the parties to attend him in person, and on advising such answer, or hearing the parties, or on the respondent failing to appear, he may at once decern, or may appoint any competent person to examine the premises and report to him, and may decern on such report, or he may, if either party desire it, order proof to be led before himself on any specified points, and shall in that case appoint a day, not more than five days thereafter, for hearing such proof, and if the proof be not on that day completed may adjourn the same from time to time until completed, and within three days after such completion he shall give decree, and he may find either party liable in expenses, or in any modified sum of expenses, and may, without prejudice to diligence by poinding or arrestment, grant warrant for the imprisonment of the person convicted or found liable in a penalty or sum of money, unless he shall pay the whole sums found due within a specified time, until the same be paid, such imprisonment to be in accordance with the provisions of the Summary Jurisdiction (Scotland) Acts.