{"id":191278,"date":"2014-11-19T06:47:48","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T13:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=191278"},"modified":"2014-11-12T14:48:15","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T21:48:15","slug":"new-york-court-revisits-architects-duty-under-contract-and-tort-principles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/new-york-court-revisits-architects-duty-under-contract-and-tort-principles\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Court Revisits Architect\u2019s Duty Under Contract and Tort Principles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Traub Lieberman Straus &amp; Shrewsberry LLP | November 4, 2014<\/p>\n<p>Issues of privity and whether claims sound in breach of contract or negligence are common in construction defect cases involving architects and New York is no exception. Indeed, New York courts have long wrestled with architect liability and formulas for imposing or defeating liability. A recent, illustrative case is Board of Managers of the Greenbelt Condominium v. 361 Manhattan Avenue LLC, et. al., 2014 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3344 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. County 2014), which involved a five story expansion\/conversion of an existing one story commercial building located in Brooklyn, New York. The architect was retained by the condominium sponsor which split the architect\u2019s varying obligations among five (5) construction phases, from \u201cSurvey\/Schematic Design\u201d through \u201cConstruction Administration.\u201d \u00a0In the Construction Administration phase, the architect agreed to \u201csupervise\u201d and \u201cmonitor\u201d the construction to ensure \u201cthe accuracy, compliance and timeliness of the work.\u201d The architect also agreed to \u201csign off\u201d on the completed condominium building after the contractors had satisfied an architect-generated punch list.<\/p>\n<p>Following substantial completion of the project and sale of most of the units, the condominium Board determined that \u201cnumerous defects\u201d existed, including failure to seal steel wall panels and the underlying EIFS (exterior insulation finishing system) layer, and failure to properly and completely install flashing and capping in several locations. Leaking and consequent damage were alleged. The Board subsequently filed a suit against various contractors, engineers and the architect. The complaint alleged that \u201cmany shortcuts were taken during construction\u201d which resulted in water being directed towards, instead of diverted from, interior portions of the structure.<\/p>\n<p>The Board\u2019s complaint asserted causes of action against the architect for professional malpractice and negligence. In support of these claims it was alleged that defendant architect breached its \u201cduty of care owed to the condominium sponsor\u201d by failing to ensure that the \u201cwork conformed to the architectural plans, specifications and drawings.\u201d The architect moved to dismiss the complaint on various grounds, including that the claim sounding in breach of contract sought recovery for economic loss which, under controlling New York authority, required that architect be in privity with the party seeking damages. The architect also argued that the negligence cause of action required a showing of a duty of \u201creasonable care\u201d owed to the party initiating the action, which did not exist. Plaintiff opposed the motion, declaring that the Board was a logical and legal \u201csuccessor\u201d to the\u00a0sponsor. It should therefore be entitled to assume the duties and rights inherent in the sponsor.<\/p>\n<p>Accepting all complaint allegations as true for purposes of a motion to dismiss, the Court granted the architect\u2019s motion. The Court held that the allegations of negligence under the circumstances were based on construction defects and \u201cas such, sound in breach of contract rather than tort.\u201d This was so, even though plaintiff alleged \u201dbreach of a duty of care,\u201d a traditional tort liability concept. The Court dismissed the breach of contract claim as well, holding that a \u201csuccessor in interest\u201d argument should not be permitted to erode the firmly established privity requirement for an architect\u2019s contract-based liability.<\/p>\n<p>via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.traublieberman.com\/construction-law\/2014\/1104\/5517\/\">New York Court Revisits Architect\u2019s Duty Under Contract and Tort Principles | Traub Lieberman Straus &amp; Shrewsberry LLP<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Traub Lieberman Straus &amp; Shrewsberry LLP | November 4, 2014 Issues of privity and whether claims sound in breach of contract or negligence are common in construction defect cases involving architects and New York is no exception. Indeed, New York courts have long wrestled with architect liability and formulas for imposing or defeating liability. A&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/new-york-court-revisits-architects-duty-under-contract-and-tort-principles\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">New York Court Revisits Architect\u2019s Duty Under Contract and Tort Principles<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[118,158,224,19,5626],"class_list":["post-191278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","category-construction-defects","tag-architect","tag-breach-of-contract","tag-construction-contract","tag-construction-defects-2","tag-tort-principles","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York Court Revisits Architect\u2019s Duty Under Contract and Tort Principles - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/new-york-court-revisits-architects-duty-under-contract-and-tort-principles\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Court Revisits Architect\u2019s Duty Under Contract and Tort Principles - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traub Lieberman Straus &amp; Shrewsberry LLP | November 4, 2014 Issues of privity and whether claims sound in breach of contract or negligence are common in construction defect cases involving architects and New York is no exception. 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Indeed, New York courts have long wrestled with architect liability and formulas for imposing or defeating liability. 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