ARCHITECT LIABLE FOR FLOOD DAMAGE

Pearson Education Ltd v The Charter Partnership Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 130; [2007] All ER (D) 262 (Feb)

In Pearson Education Ltd v The Charter Partnership Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 130; [2007] All ER (D) 262 (Feb) the Court of Appeal held that the defendant architects were liable in negligence to the claimants and, in so concluding, placed a narrow interpretation upon the decision of the Court of Appeal in Baxall Securities Ltd v Sheard Walshaw Partnership (a firm) [2002] EWCA Civ 89; [2002] BLR 100 (on which see our March 2002 issue, pp. 6–10). It may be that Baxall will be overruled in the event that the issue is considered by the House of Lords. On the facts the Court of Appeal held that the occurrence of a flood in 1994 did not absolve the defendants from responsibility for a subsequent flood in 2002 because the cause of the flood in 1994, namely the inadequacy in the specifications of the drainage system for which the defendants were responsible, had remained latent and the claimants had neither known nor ought to have known of the 1994 flood or its cause. It was also held that the claim was not time-barred as the defendants’ breach of duty occurred within the 15-year period prescribed in s14B of the Limitation Act 1980.