Cases - Pearce v Ove Arup Partnership Ltd

Record details

Name

Pearce v Ove Arup Partnership Ltd

Date

[2001]

Citation

EWHC Ch 481

Keywords

Expert witness

Summary

The claimant architect alleged that the design of the famous Kunsthal art gallery in Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas had been plagiarised from his final year project at the Architectural Association for a town hall in London Docklands.

The judge dismissed the claim and criticised the evidence and lack of objectivity of the architect expert witness called by the claimant. One criticism was that the expert had not visited the Kunsthal before making his report, and had not mentioned this fact in the report. Another was that the expert had not properly read a document that he annexed to his report. The judge concluded that the expert witness did not understand his duty to help the court, overriding his obligation to his client:

'He came to argue a case. Any point which might support that case, however flimsy, he took. Nowhere did he stand back and take an objective view as an architect as to how the alleged copying could have been done. [The expert witness] bears a heavy responsibility for this case ever coming to trial - with its attendant cost, expense and waste of time ...'

The judge noted that:

'there is no rule for specific sanctions where an expert witness is in breach of his Part 35 duty ... there is no specific accrediting body to whose attention a breach of the duty can be drawn'.

However, the judge noted that many expert witnesses, including this one, belong to a professional body:

'I see no reason why a judge who has formed the opinion that an expert has seriously broken his Part 35 duty should not, in an appropriate case, refer the matter to the expert's professional body if he or she has one. Whether there is a breach of the expert's professional rules and if so what sanction is appropriate would be a matter for the body concerned.'

In the result, failing adequate representations within 21 days from the expert as to why he should not do so, the judge asked the defendants' solicitors to refer the matter to the Royal Insitute of British Architects (RIBA).

(Note: it is understood that RIBA exonerated the expert witness from any professional misconduct.)