Scottish Water has been ordered to pay a Dundee driver £4500 in damages after his wheel fell into an open drain.
Thomas McDonald will also get his expenses paid after being injured when heavy rain caused a steel manhole cover to lift off and drop inside the manhole in Ardler.
The drain was covered by a puddle when Mr McDonald drove into it at the corner of Turnberry Avenue and Gullane Road on September 14, 2006.
Sheriff George Way ruled Scottish Water was responsible and should have foreseen the potential for the cover to be lifted off when it adopted the drainage system in 2003.
During evidence in the civil hearing, Sheriff Way heard Mr McDonald had been driving his Ford Escort in Turnberry Avenue at 9pm in heavy rain. He drove through the puddle and the front wheel of the car fell into the drain, causing him to be injured.
He sued Scottish Water. Sheriff Way said there was no evidence that it had liaised with the developers of the drainage system or of pressure testing of the system before it was adopted, which the firm accepted.
The sheriff ruled that Scottish Water was responsible for maintaining the system.
He accepted Scottish Water’s argument that transient danger due to the elements is “no evidence of a defect or failure to maintain.”