Definition
In Scots law, an assignee — that is, a person to whom rights, property, or a legal claim have been transferred by another. The term is the Scots law equivalent of the English law "assignee" and functions identically in substance: the assignay receives by assignment whatever interest the cedent (the transferor) held and is entitled to enforce that interest in their own name.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in Scottish legal materials — writs, deeds, court records, and treatises produced under Scots law — and rarely if ever in English or American sources except as a dictionary entry or passing comparative reference. Researchers working in pre-union or post-union Scottish records should recognize it as a functional synonym for "assignee" and follow cross-references accordingly. The spelling is fixed; do not expect variant spellings to carry distinct meanings. Because the term is purely a jurisdictional variant rather than a conceptually distinct role, the substantive research on the rights and obligations of the position belongs under ASSIGNEE and ASSIGNMENT.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement and nearly identical in their treatment: assignay is defined, without elaboration, as the Scots law term for an assignee. Neither edition expands on the procedural or substantive rules governing an assignay under Scots law, and neither distinguishes the role from its English counterpart in any meaningful way. The brevity of both entries accurately reflects the term's nature — it is a linguistic localism, not a separate legal concept. Researchers should not expect historical dictionaries to add depth here; the substance lives in Scots law treatises and primary sources, not in Anglo-American legal lexicography.
Jurisdictional Note
Assignay is specific to Scots law. English and American jurisdictions use "assignee" exclusively. The rights and duties of the role are substantively comparable across these systems, but the terminology diverges, and Scottish primary sources will use assignay (or occasionally the Latin cessionary) rather than assignee.