The Courier understands that a successful legal battle has helped save Perth and Kinross Council almost £1 million.
The sum was being sought by administrators KPMG and other companies in the wake of the 2010 collapse of social housing firm Connaught.
They contended that the local authority had owed £835,000 and sought to have the Court of Session order payment.
Following a two-year struggle, however, Lord Malcolm has decided in favour of the council, which had argued throughout that it had paid the firm its due.
Connaught was a multi-million-pound partner of Perth and Kinross Council, having been employed to supply, install and refurbish bathrooms in more than 6,500 homes.
It completed the £23.5 million renewal project five weeks ahead of its three-year target fortunately, as it was placed in administration just weeks later with staggering debts of £160m.
The firm was praised for the quality of its work but such projects were not enough to save it from oblivion.
Bosses at the Exeter-based repair and maintenance specialist had been hit by government spending cuts that blew a hole in its revenues, and had been unable to placate lenders.
Some of the firm’s debts were sold by administrator KPMG to other companies who then came looking for “owed” sums from Perth and Kinross Council.
It was initially told to pay up but appealed that decision to the Court of Session, which heard evidence from both the council’s lawyers and agents acting on behalf of KPMG’s Richard Heis and other unnamed partners.
Lord Malcolm eventually found against the applicants and his decision has been welcomed by Perth and Kinross Council.
A spokeswoman for the local authority said: “The council welcomes the opinion issued by Lord Malcolm in this case, which relates to the council house bathroom improvements contract undertaken by Connaught Partnership Ltd between 2007 and 2010.
“Various claims were made on behalf of the contractor, which amounted to £835,000. These claims were considered, in terms of the contract, by an adjudicator who upheld them.
“The council challenged the adjudicator’s decision in the Court of Session and were successful. Lord Malcolm held that the adjudicator had failed to take into account arguments that had been legitimately put forward by the council.
“In addition, it was also held that any ruling against the council to pay compensation would have been unfair because the bankruptcy of the contractors would have meant that the council would not have been able to recover that sum if the adjudicator’s decision was subsequently overturned.
“The result of the decision is to make the adjudicator’s decision null and void,” she added.
The council has been the beneficiary of a number of positive court rulings in recent years. In 2012, more than £800,000 lost when the Icelandic banking system went into meltdown was recovered following an action in the Icelandic Supreme Courts.
The money, along with millions in deposits from other local authorities, had been placed in high-interest accounts with the Glitnir bank in Iceland shortly before the world economic crash.