{"id":893034,"date":"2017-10-11T12:47:13","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=893034"},"modified":"2017-10-10T14:58:28","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T20:58:28","slug":"construction-contracts-third-party-claims-tort-law-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contracts-third-party-claims-tort-law-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Contracts, Third Party Claims and Tort Law Liability"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Carl R. Pebworth | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faegrebd.com\/construction-contracts-third-party-claims-and-tort-law-liability\" target=\"_blank\">Faegre Baker Daniels<\/a> | October 5, 2017<\/p>\n<p>What tort obligations does a design professional on a construction project owe to non-parties \u2014 like, for example, the persons who will use what has been designed after it is built? Tort law involves the idea of a duty of care that the design professional owes to others arising out of the designer\u2019s professional expertise and certification. Matters involving a design professional\u2019s tort obligations typically raise the following issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The nature and extent of the professional\u2019s duty of care to others<\/li>\n<li>What kinds of damages can be recovered if this duty of care is breached<\/li>\n<li>What is necessary to prove that a third party has been damaged by the breach<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Contracts and Establishing the Standard of Care<\/h2>\n<p>In one Illinois case, a court addressed whether an engineer who had contracted to design a \u201creplacement\u201d for a bridge deck had a professional obligation to \u201cimprove\u201d the bridge deck after it failed and third-party motorists were killed. In other words, did the design professional have an independent obligation to go beyond replacing the bridge deck, as the contract stipulated? The Supreme Court of Illinois said no, granting summary judgment as a matter of law in favor of the engineer as to the deceased motorists\u2019 claims.<\/p>\n<p>In this case, there was a contract that prescribed the duty of care that the design professional agreed to meet: \u201cthe degree of skill and diligence normally employed by professional engineers or consultants\u00a0<em>performing the same or similar services<\/em>.\u201d These contract obligations trumped the standard of care that would exist absent a contract: \u201cthe use of the same degree of knowledge, skill and ability as an ordinarily careful professional would exercise under similar circumstances.\u201d While these standards look similar, they differ because one recognizes the limitations that the parties agreed to in their contract limit the engineer\u2019s duty to others. Because the contract specifically required replacement \u2014 and not redesign \u2014 of the bridge deck, the engineer could not be held liable for failing to go beyond the contractual scope of duty.<\/p>\n<p>The engineer could have been found liable to third parties if he had been negligent in performing services relating to the replacement of the bridge deck \u2014 that was in the scope of what the engineer had agreed to do. Moreover, the engineer could have assumed additional liability by voluntarily attempting to improve the bridge deck and delivering a poor or defective product.<\/p>\n<h2>Contracts and the Economic Loss Doctrine<\/h2>\n<p>A design professional\u2019s obligations to third parties are further limited by the \u201ceconomic loss doctrine,\u201d which applies to claims that do not involve physical harm. This doctrine prevents a party from pursuing a claim for economic or commercial losses arising from an alleged breach of a duty of care if the design professional\u2019s contract precludes recovery of consequential or tort-based damages. Put simply, the contract\u2019s limitation of damages can preempt economic loss liability even in cases where a professional failed to meet the duty of care.<\/p>\n<p>Another question that arises if a duty of care is present and a third party has suffered damages is whether the breach of the duty has \u201cproximately caused\u201d these damages. Here, many courts \u2014 including the Illinois court \u2014 look at what the professional has contractually agreed to do. If injury results from something reasonably within that contractually defined responsibility, a design professional can be seen to proximately cause damages that flow from the designer\u2019s failure to competently perform those duties.<\/p>\n<h2>In Conclusion: Know (and Perform) Your Contractual Duties<\/h2>\n<p>In summary, a design professional\u2019s contract serves to confine and to define the designer\u2019s obligations \u2014 not just to the design professional\u2019s client, but also to third parties with whom the designer does not have a contractual relationship. As long as the design professional sticks to what the designer has contracted to do and does that work professionally, the designer cannot be obligated to go beyond those duties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Carl R. Pebworth | Faegre Baker Daniels | October 5, 2017 What tort obligations does a design professional on a construction project owe to non-parties \u2014 like, for example, the persons who will use what has been designed after it is built? Tort law involves the idea of a duty of care that the design&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-contracts-third-party-claims-tort-law-liability\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Construction Contracts, Third Party Claims and Tort Law Liability<\/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":[9,9009],"tags":[9895,72,284,8930,10281],"class_list":["post-893034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-contracts","category-design-professionals","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction-contracts-2","tag-design-professionals","tag-third-party-claims","tag-tort-law-liability","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>Construction Contracts, Third Party Claims and Tort Law Liability - Advise &amp; 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