ex contractu

This act [An Act anent the Aliment of Poor Prisoners 1696 (chapter 32; Parliament of Scotland)] was clearly intended to regulate the case of civil debts; but the question occurred whether by civil debts was meant debts ex contractu, or debts also ex delicto; and the Court were at first of opinion that debtors, whose debts arose ex delicto, were not entitled to the benefit of the statute. … The opinion was however given up by the Court in 1787; and debts, though arising ex delicto, were held to be civil debts in the sense of the act, and as such, did not exclude the debtor from the benefit of the statute.