Architect and Engineer Liability Claims Against Design Professionals

Architect and Engineer Liability: Claims Against Design Professionals, Fifth Edition, details all relevant topics relating to liability claims: risk management, alternative dispute resolution, trial conduct, handling shop drawings, insurance and surety, and more. Prepared for design and construction professionals and their attorneys, this comprehensive, up-to-date resource is written by eminent authorities in the field and provides straightforward answers to all your legal questions, as well as examples of the valuable lessons learned by leading design and construction experts.

The Fifth Edition adds significant new and revised material on a number of critical topics, as well as expanded discussion and analyses of the latest court decisions, trends, and issues in the rapidly evolving area of construction law, including the following:

• Explanation for the American Institute of Architect's (AIA's new and revised forms: Construction Manager as Adviser (B132(TM)-2019); Construction Manager as Constructor (B133(TM)-2019); and Standard Form Multi-Party Agreement for Integrated Project Delivery (AIA C191-2019).
• Which of an architect's commercial general liability policies apply is dependent upon whether there is damage during the respective policy period. And if there is damage over several policy periods, the issue becomes whether the limits and the self-insured retentions/deductibles "stack."
• Whether an engineer was protected by the application of the economic loss doctrine can be determined by whether the owner's damage claims were economic losses.
• The New Hampshire Supreme Court in 2019 held that indemnity and contribution claims against a design professional could be barred by the New Hampshire statute of repose as purely economic losses.
• The 2019 AIA updates to the Construction Manager as Constructor (CMc) documents include a new standard of care that requires the construction manager to "exercise reasonable care in performing its Preconstruction Services"; and contain insurance requirements for the CMc during the preconstruction phase that match the insurance requirements for the architect.
• Effective August 1, 2019, a North Carolina law provides critical protections for design professionals when faced with the question of whether they owed a duty to defend the owner of a project.
• A New York City mayor's discretionary conduct in refusing to take the steps necessary to authorize a construction project (i.e., inaction) was shielded by legislative immunity.
• A provision of the standard form A201 General Conditions incorporated into a contract further defined the term "architect" to include the authorized representatives of the listed architect in the contract which permitted a principal, as a representative of the architectural firm, among those persons able to demand arbitration under the terms of the contract.
• Under Indiana law, construction managers owe a duty for job-site employee safety in two circumstances: when the construction manager has contractually assumed a duty for job-site safety or when the construction manager voluntarily assumed a duty for job-site safety.