This judgment provides a detailed consideration of the authorities relating to an assumption of responsibility, applying the same to those providing design checks or other design services in the construction industry. In this instance, the independent checker was held not to have owed the main contractor any duty of care in respect of the same. It confirms that courts will be slow to impose such tortious duties in a large construction project, where the parties have deliberately entered into a series of complex contractual relationships. It was held to be inconceivable that the design checker would have voluntarily assumed an unlimited responsibility to the main contractor on such a highly complicated project, or to any other party involved in that project other than the one with whom they were in a direct contractual relationship.
My recent article first published on Lexis®PSL on 19 March 2021
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