By the time his case was determined, Ross was too old for admission, and the question was whether he was entitled to damages from the trust funds.
Heriot's Hospital was not a tort claim and did not address the issue whether a charity is liable to those whom it has wrongfully injured.
Heriot's Hospital repeated an earlier dictum from Lord Cottenham in Duncan v. Findlater, 6 Cl.
894 (1839), which decided, unremarkably, that highway trustees, under a public road act, were not liable for the negligence of independent contractors.
By 1866, the dictum of Duncan v. Findlater (and by implication that of Heriot's Hospital) was overruled by Mersey Docks Trustees v. Gibbs, LR 1 HL 93, 11 Eng Rep 1500 (1866).