Engineer and Owner Both Liable for Negligent Design that Failed to Protect Public Safety

In preparing their designs, professional engineers owe a duty to take reasonable care not to create a hazard that will cause physical harm to members of the public. The recent decision from the British Columbia Supreme Court in Lovely v. Kamloops (City)¹, examines the scope of this duty in the context of the design of a waste transfer station, where the design engineers had no prior professional experience with such facilities. The case also addresses the responsibility of the owner for its unsafe facilities. Both design consultants and owners can take important lessons from the case.

The court confirmed that the standard of care for professionals generally is one of "reasonableness and ordinary competence, commensurate with the position of the person or entity in question and prevailing internal professional standards". With respect to professional engineers specifically, the court held that "there is a paramount professional duty to ensure public safety in all