Engineer´s Responsibility For Temporary Works

An engineer engaged to provide design services for permanent works may also owe a duty to his employer for temporary works, even if the employer's brief does not specifically refer to temporary works.

In Hart Investments v Fidler the court held that a consulting engineer was liable to the employer for the collapse of part of a building into a deep excavation. The cause of the collapse was patently inadequate support to the building during excavation. The engineer was specifically engaged by the employer to design the permanent works - for which he accepted full responsibility - but not the temporary works. Yet the engineer was held liable to the employer for the consequences of there being inadequacies with the temporary works.