Gibson v Strathclyde Regional Council, 1993 SLT 1243
Citation: Gibson v Strathclyde Regional Council, 1993 SLT 1243
Rule of thumb 1: If you trip on a faulty drain cover or fall down a hole where a drain cover should be, do you have a claim? Possibly not – it depends how long it was like that for & if it was reported to the local authority.
Rule of thumb 2: How often do local authorities have to do inspections of paths & drains before they become liable for them? They certainly do not have to do daily inspections – much longer intervals than this (at least months).
Judgment:
‘I do not accept that where such an averment has been made the Court is entitled to hold that daily inspection was reasonable or practicable in the absence of averments to support such a conclusion. If averments had been made to the effect that it was the practice among other local authorities responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of drains to carry out daily inspections, that in my opinion would have supported the pursuer’s case that it was reasonably practicable to inspect such drains daily, but no such averments have been made. Likewise if the pursuer had been in a position to aver some special circumstance existing at the locus, such averments might have been sufficient to support the assertion that it was reasonably practicable to inspect the drains daily. For example, if the pursuer had been in a position to say that in the past covers had frequently been removed from drains in this locality or that the defenders had received numerous complaints regarding the absence of drain covers here, that too might have supported the case for daily inspections’, The Inner House
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.