An Aberdeen kilt shop has lost a long running legal battle against Aberdeen City Council in Scotland’s highest civil court.
McCalls Highland Wear claimed the local authority failed to act lawfully and maintain a structure close to its premises in the city’s Bridge Street.
Lawyers told Court of Session judges that part of the shop is located within the vaults to a railway bridge.
The court heard that in recent years, large amounts of water had been leaking into the property and “a large body of evidence” showed that it was coming from the bridge.
The court also heard that the business believed that it a had a legal obligation to carry out works to ensure that the leakage stopped.
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However, the local authority argued that as it didn’t own the bridge, it had no obligation to carry out any work stopping the water.
Its lawyers told the business that the council only had an obligation to ensure that the bridge was in a “fit state” to support the road. It concluded that the bridge was able to support the structure.
This prompted the business to launch its action in the Court of Session. In November 2019, Lady Carmichael ruled in favour of the council stating that its understanding of the law was correct.
Lawyers for McCalls went to the Inner House of the Court of Session to argue that Lady Carmichael had misinterpreted the law.
However, in a written judgement issued by the court judges Lady Dorrian, Lord Brodie, and Lord Woolman have now upheld their colleague’s decision.
Lord Brodie wrote: “In our opinion there is nothing in the statute which supports the petitioner’s construction. The supposed duty simply does not exist.
“The Lord Ordinary was correct to dismiss the petition.”
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