Cases - Voli v Inglewood Shire Council

Record details

Name

Voli v Inglewood Shire Council

Date

[1963]; (1963)

Citation

HCA 15; 110 CLR 74

Keywords

Contract administration

Summary

The defendant architect was employed by the council to design and supervise the construction of a local community hall. It was an express term of the contract that the defendant architect's plans had to be submitted to the Public Works Department and the Department of Health ('the Departments') for approval, before the works began. The architect defendant completed the plans and submitted them to the Departments. The plans were approved. It later transpired that the design of the hall was defective because the central joists that had been used were not of a sufficient size for their intended purpose. As a result of the defect, the hall stage collapsed and a number of people were injured. Those injured commenced proceedings against a number of parties, including the defendant architect.

The High Court of Australia considered the architect's duties under the contract, and in particular whether an architect is liable in negligence to a person who suffers harm by reason of faults in the design and construction.

The court held that in performing his duties under the contract, the architect was bound to act with due care, skill and diligence. The standard of this skill was held to be the standard of skill that is 'usual' among architects. The fact that the contract provided for the plans to be submitted to the Departments for approval before the works commenced, did not free the architect from liability. The submission of the plans to the Departments did not mean that they would correct the architect's mistakes.

The court also held that an architect is liable to anyone that could reasonably have been foreseen to be injured as a result of the architect's negligence. In this respect physical injury is treated differently from economic damage for which the range of people who can recover their losses in tort is limited.