An engineering company has been left facing a £330,283 bill for reinstatement of a defective car park following a decision by a High Court judge that it was liable for problems which caused cracking and spalling in the building.
Between 1989 and 1991, Curtins Consulting Engineers plc was the structural services consulting engineer for a project to build a multi-storey car park adjacent to the South Lakeland District Councils’ offices at Kendal, Cumbria. The council sued Curtins for breach of its duty of care after cracking and spalling appeared in the structure.
Although Curtins agreed the cost of reinstatement, it denied liability and argued, among other things, that: (i) it had no duty to design and detail the relevant parts of the car park as that was the duty of a specialist supplier; (ii) it had carried out sufficient checks of details provided to it; (iii) the design as produced and installed was adequate; and (iv) the cracking and spalling in question was neither unusual nor structurally caused.
However, finding that the company was liable, Judge Thornton QC said that the “cracking and spalling is progressive and results from an inability of the structure, at critical locations in the joints, to maintain sufficient stiffness when subjected to live loads from car park traffic”. He considered that by failing to specify and install appropriate mesh, Curtins had been in breach of its duty of care and that the cracking and spalling was a direct consequence of that breach.
South Lakeland District Council v Curtins Consulting Engineers plc Technology and Construction Court (Judge Thornton QC) 23 May 2000.
Duncan McCall (instructed by Addleshaw Booth & Co, of Manchester) appeared for the claimant; David Sears (instructed by Hill Dickinson, of Liverpool) appeared for the defendant.
PLS News 30/5/00
