Lawyers for the world-famous Glasgow School of Art building have won a battle in an action they have brought against a firm involved in the doomed reconstruction of the Mackintosh masterpiece.
Insurers of the Mackintosh building have raised proceedings at the Court of Session in Edinburgh against Arrest Fire & Security Ltd, a company based in Glasgow.
The company was contracted to provide anti fire security systems for the building, which was destroyed following a fire in 2014.
But the insurers are dissatisfied by the services provided to them by the firm. It wants judges at the Court of Session to pass an order stating that Arrest was in breach of its ‘duty of care’ to them in relation to the installation of a fire alarm and fire protection systems at the building.
READ MORE: Glasgow’s buses to go green in new clean hydrogen fuel project
On Thursday, following a short hearing at the court, judge Lord Brailsford granted a motion made by the art school’s legal team to hand over documents relating to the deal between the two businesses.
Lord Brailsford said: “I will grant commission of diligence.”
The Mackintosh building is located in Glasgow’s Garnethill area.
It was completed in 1909 and is considered to be unique by architectural experts who pointed to the fact that for many years it was a working art school as well as a work of art.
However, in May 2014, the building was destroyed by a fire. It destroyed the Mackintosh library The blaze, which destroyed about 10% of the building, including the Mackintosh library, broke out on Friday 23 May.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service concluded that the 2014 fire broke out after flammable gases from a foam canister used in a student project were ignited.
The blaze prompted a fund raising effort from Glasgow School of Art. Hollywood actor Brad Pitt - who is a long term fan of Rennie Mackintosh - and former Dr Who Peter Capaldi agreed to be trustees of the scheme to raise cash for the building’s restoration.
READ MORE: Jeane Freeman accused of lying to MPs over health meetings
However, a second blaze broke out at the building in June 2018.
Flames ripped through it after it caught fire at about 11.20pm on a Friday night.
The blaze spread to nearby buildings, including the Campus nightclub and O2 ABC music venue, which suffered "extensive damage".
It is estimated the rebuilding of the Mackintosh building will cost at least £100m
The company - which trades as Arrest 24:7 - was involved in the rebuilding of the Mackintosh building after it was destroyed by a blaze in May 2014.
A section on the company’s website confirms that they were involved in the reconstruction works.
The company’s website states: “As an experienced fire and security company, Arrest Security recently completed a range of services at all sites of the Glasgow School of Art.
“Providing a wealth of bespoke security solutions for this client, our dedicated team of engineers installed multiple intruder alarms, fire systems, cctv and access control systems at all sites including the famous Mackintosh building.
“The bespoke security package offered by Arrest Security adhered to all current regulations to ensure all buildings within the school remain compliant in terms of health and safety and safeguard human life at all times.”
On Tuesday, Gavin MacColl QC told the court, which was conducted by telephone, that his clients needed to access documents to help prepare their case against Arrest.
He added: “I invite the court to allow the specification of documents in the terms being sought. It would be appropriate to allow the order.”
Lawyers for Alarm urged Lord Brailsford not to allow the request made by the Art School to go ahead. They argued that there was no need for the documents being sought to be handed over.
Lord Brailsford concluded that it was appropriate for the art school’s request to be granted.
He added: “I will grant the commission of diligence.”
The case is expected to call again in court sometime in the near future. Alarm are contesting the action.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here