› Engineer retained to prepare construction drawings
› Whether duty extended to guarding against incompetent execution of building work by others
› Whether duty to warn of risks of proceeding without geotechnical report
Tort
› Negligence
› Duty of care
› Building design and construction
› Partial collapse of adjacent building during excavation
› Whether engineer owed duty in relation to risk of collapse of existing building on client's adjacent land
› Reasonable foreseeability
› Assumption that competent licensed builder would be engaged
Tort
› Negligence
› Duty of care
› Backhoe operator
› Whether operator owed independent duty of care when acting under direction and control of owner-builder
Practice and Procedure
› Amendment of pleadings
› Application to amend on fourth day of trial
› Whether trial judge erred in refusing amendment
› Prejudice
Quick Take
1An engineer retained only to prepare construction drawings, who advises that a geotechnical report should be obtained and whose client refuses that advice, owes no duty to guard against the risk that building work will be carried out incompetently, where the engineer reasonably assumes a competent licensed builder will be engaged.
2Imposing on a design engineer a duty to guard against incompetent execution of building work by others would be extremely onerous and impractical, requiring the engineer to anticipate a wide range of incompetence without power to prevent it.
