A COUPLE who bought an old schoolhouse more than 12 years ago now face the threat of eviction at the hands of the man who has become known as the Raider of the Lost Titles.

A judge has decided to hear evidence in an action brought by former North Sea welder Brian Hamilton.

A summons was served on John and Isabella Baxter just weeks before their title became free from all legal challenge under a 10-year rule.

The former Strathclyde Regional Council granted a disposition of a plot of ground at Lanark Road, Auchenheath, Lanarkshire, which included the former schoolhouse, in favour of the Baxters in September 1984.

An application was made to the Keeper of the Land Register of Scotland and a land certificate was issued with a registration date of January 1985, which stated that the property was owned by Mr and Mrs Baxter.

The certificate carried a note which stated that no evidence of a title to the property before the disposition to the Baxters had been produced to the keeper.

Yesterday at the Court of Session, Lord Hamilton said a summons was served on the couple by M R S Hamilton Ltd in December 1994.

The company maintained that it was the owner of the schoolhouse and was asking the court to declare that the Baxters did not have a valid and unchallengeable title to the property.

The action at the Court of Session is also seeking ejection of the couple from their home.

The judge said the summons was served several weeks before the expiry of a 10-year occupation which would have given the Baxters an unchallengeable title to their home.

Under the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973, if someone holds a registered interest in land for a continuous period of 10 years without judicial interruption, the validity of the title is free from challenge.

Lord Hamilton said he had to decide whether the service of the summons amounted to an interruption of the Baxters' ownership of the schoolhouse.

The Baxter's counsel argued that it did not and that it was also doubtful if the company, whose claim relied on a 999-year lease granted in its favour, had a ''proper interest'' to challenge the title, and asked for the case to be dismissed.

The judge ruled, however, that the service of the summons did amount to ''judicial interruption'' of the possession of the schoolhouse.

Interruption of the 10-year-period could be on the basis of an action to declare that someone else was the true owner of the property.

It could also be done by way of an action to set aside the deed by which a title had been registered on the basis that someone else had a prior right.

Lord Hamilton added that the basis on which the company founded its claim was complex, but it derived from the proposition that the schoolhouse was still part of the lands and estate of Blackwood in the County of Lanark.

It was alleged that the schoolhouse had been the subject of a feu disposition in 1878 granted by ''the commissioner of the heir of entail of the lands and estate of Blackwood.''

The judge decided there would have to be a further hearing on whether, in 1878, the schoolhouse was part of the lands and estate of Blackwood.

The activities of Mr Brian Hamilton, a former North Sea welder, in buying up the right to invoke casualty clauses in old leases have sparked off a debate in Parliament and a review of the situation by the Scottish Law Commission.

He bought the former Blackwood estate, where many of the properties are on a 999-year lease, in 1994, and has the right to collect money owed in penalty clauses when leases are sold.

Mr Hamilton has been accused of profiting by hundreds of thousands of pounds and leaving shattered lives in his wake.

He says that if the solicitor who conveyed the properties had been more alert to spot the loophole in the law, the situation would never have arisen.

Mr and Mrs Baxter yesterday declined to comment and their solicitor, Mr Peter Drummond, of Holmes MacKillop in Glasgow, said he did not wish to comment on their case at this stage because he had not yet seen a copy of the judgment.

He said: ''Unfortunately, The Herald has been a little too prompt for me to be able to say a great deal to you. I am still awaiting the text of the court's decision. When that is received it will require to be carefully considered by Mr and Mrs Baxter's legal team in view of the complex matters which are addressed in this litigation.''