Cladding and prescription

In Greater Glasgow Health Board v Multiplex Construction Europe Ltd [2025] CSOH 56, Lord Braid held that the pursuer's claim in respect of alleged defects in the cladding of the atrium of a hospital had prescribed because the summons was issued more than five years after the prescriptive period had started to run. The pursuer sought to avoid this conclusion by maintaining that it had refrained from making a claim because of an error induced by the defender the effect of which was to suspend the running of the prescriptive period. However, it was held that the pursuer could not point to a relevant error which had been induced by the defender and, this being the case, the pursuer's claim, which was for a sum in excess of £16 million, was held to have prescribed.