A firm of Yorkshire architects is “potentially” liable for damage done by a fire in a disused Leeds cinema after member of the practice left the building unsecured during a visit.
Leeds-based commercial and residential property developer Rushbond Plc is suing Bradford-based JS Design Partnership LLP for negligence over a fire that did more than £6m damage to the Majestic Cinema in Leeds in September 2014.
The cinema has since been redeveloped as office space and is now Channel 4’s new national headquarters and is also tenanted by law firm Knights Plc.
At a hearing in 2020, lawyers for JS Design argued the case should be thrown out as it was an instance of so-called “pure omissions”, which means that a negligence claim couldn’t be brought.
The judge agreed. However, in a ruling handed down today, a three-judge panel at the Court of Appeal reversed the ruling and said the case could go to trial.
According to the ruling, in 2014 Rushbond owned the Majestic, on City Square in Leeds. The three-floor building had a capacity of 2,500 people and, at the time, it was empty. Rushbond planned to let the building for leisure use. It was approached by a potential client, who hired JS Design to advise them on whether the property was suitable for leisure use.
On 30 September 2014, an employee of JS Design took an engineer and a quantity surveyor to see the building. During their hour-long visit, a door on to the street was left unlocked.
“Later that day, a fire was started inside the property and the roof and the interior were destroyed,” Lord Justice Coulson said in today’s ruling.
“It is the appellant’s case that the fire was started by an intruder. The claim in negligence against the respondent is for damages put at around £6.5m. Fortunately, the external shell was largely saved and has been incorporated into a new building on the site,” he said.
JS Design denies the claim, saying it didn’t have a “duty of care” although it accepts there was an “increase in the risk of harm” during the visit while the door was unsecured.
In May 2020 it applied to have the case struck out and, in a judgment handed down in July, a High Court judge agreed, saying the case was bound to fail.
However, in today’s ruling Coulson LJ said Rushbond’s case was “arguable” and should go to trial.
“The respondent was a visitor to the appellant’s property, present with the appellant’s permission. In my view, it is fanciful to suggest that, whilst the sole occupant of the property, trusted with the keys, the respondent owed no duty of care to the claimant to take reasonable precautions as to security,” he said.
“It seems to me therefore that, arguably, on an ordinary application of general principle, all the necessary ingredients of a negligence action were in place here: duty, foreseeability, breach and causation.”
The case is now likely to got to trial at the Technology and Construction Court next year.
Rushbond Plc v The JS Design Partnership LLP
Court of Appeal (Asplin LJ, Coulson LJ, Stuart Smith LJ) 14 December 2021
