Sheriff Court case relating to the blockage of a sewer on Queen Anne Street in Dunfermline which Scottish Water were responsible for maintaining. A monobloc thought to be causing the blockage was discovered by Scottish Water in February 2009 after excavating and opening the pipe.  Scottish Water claimed damages from Dunne who had carried out reconstruction and resurfacing works for Fife Council in November 2007. The works had involved replacing the surface of the road and pavement with monobloc.

At first instance the sheriff found that on the balance of probabilities the blockage had been caused by the monobloc used by Dunne to resurface the road but was unable to make a finding as to how the monobloc had found its way into the sewer. As the Scottish Water had no direct evidence as to what had happened in 2007 and were not able to prove that there was no other way the block could have entered the sewer, the sheriff refused Scottish Water’s action for damages.

However, the sheriff principal allowed an appeal, finding that Scottish Water’s evidence was sufficient to raise a prima facie inference of negligence which had not been answered by Dunne. As such, damages of £12,585 were awarded to Scottish Water.

The full judgement is available from Scottish Water here.

All of our property and conveyancing case summaries are contained in the LKS Property and Conveyancing Casebook here.