Los Angeles Attorney Serving Architects and Engineers
Information About Attempts to Impose Liability for Construction Supervision
Oftentimes, in the shotgun approach many law firms employ concerning construction defect or professional negligence ("malpractice") litigation, an architect or engineer may be named for not noticing a construction defect in the course of construction. This exhibits a misunderstanding of the scope of most types of construction supervision or administration. A California statute, Business and Professions Code Section 5536.25(c) recognizes that "construction observation services does not mean the superintendence of construction processes, site conditions, operations, equipment, or personnel, or the maintenance of a safe place to work or any safety in, on, or about the site." Rather, "construction observation services" means "periodic observation of completed work to determine general compliance with the plans, specifications, reports or other contract documents."
Business and Professions Code section 6737.4 permits a licensed contractor to prepare "electrical or mechanical shop or field drawings for work which he has contracted to perform." It thus clearly contemplates that civil engineering plans for the basic structure may properly be prepared omitting all mechanical and electrical details which may be supplied by the mechanical or electrical contractor. Thus, in the California case of Wyner v. Buxton (1979) 97 Cal.App.3d 166, the court held that the engineer was not responsible for the lack of drainage detail, since those details were to be supplied by the engineer's shop drawings.
