Cases - Bagot v Stevens Scanlan & Co.

Record details

Name

Bagot v Stevens Scanlan & Co.

Date

[1964]

Citation

3 WLR 1162

Keywords

Contract administration

Summary

The plaintiff owner employed the defendant architect to supervise the construction of a drainage system, pursuant to a standard form building contract, entered into in March 1955. The defendant architects continued their supervision until February 1957. In the latter part of 1961, several of the pipes in the drainage system broke or cracked. On 2 April 1963 the plaintiff commenced proceedings against the defendant for breach of contractual duty to supervise the works properly.

The issue was the whether the action for negligence against the architect for negligent supervision ran from the date of the last act of negligence or the date when the damage first occurred. The supervision ended more than 6 years before the writ was issued. The damage (to drainage pipes) became apparent 4 years after the supervisory duties came to an end, albeit that arguably the damage itself occurred when the drains were constructed.

Held: The answer depended on whether the action arose in contract, tort or both. The duty to exercise reasonable skill and care where the failure was to do the very thing contracted to be done, arose out of contract alone and, in cases of professional relationships, such a duty did not arise also independently of contract; accordingly, the action was statute barred.