Liability as a Supervisor

[JimmyTreeX]

To what extent can a supervisor be held accountable for the actions of those under them?

Example:

I'm the Supervisor. I supervise 5 inspectors who were all equally trained properly in everything we do, and are all State certified CEO's. Each inspector performs 8-12 inspections each every day. So for argument sake, let's just say that between the 5 of them, they perform 200+ inspections a week.

As we all know, it would be impossible for any supervisor to know exactly what is taking place at all 200+ inspections every week. And like I said above, they were all trained properly in every situation before they were set off on their own.

So at what point could an error of theirs, or a decision of theirs, come back to haunt the supervisor? Or when can a supervisor be held liable for the action of an inspector below them, other than when that supervisor allowed something, improperly taught something, or overlooked something? For example: an inspector finds that an apartment is technically over-occupied but decides to cut the family a break and overlook it, and later that night there is a fire and people get hurt (or worse). Now this info was never communicated to the supervisor by the inspector and the inspector was properly taught the codes on occupancy limitations.



I am currently a Supervisor of 5 people and I am just trying to get your take of things. For any supervisors out there, how do you conduct your daily routine? Any tips or advice?

Thank you.

 

[Mark K]

The specifics are a matter of state law but in general if you are a government employee performing a governmental function you have no legal liability.

If you act outside of your legal authority you will likely have liability exposure.

 

[SCBO1]

See IBC Section 104 and compare with NY State section and see if that answers any of your questions. Also see section 103

 

[steveray]

Personal liability for lawsuit....likely none...But you can be fired and/ or have your career ruined when you make a convenient scapegoat.....

 

[Mark K]

While there should be no liability for you I would not rely on the liability provisions in the IBC because I expect that what will control is statutes adopted by the legislature and appellate court opinions. Rather you should consult with the Cities lawyer.. Unless directly adopted by the legislature there will be limits on the authority of the adopting body.

 

[SCBO1]

Agree with Mark, consult your city attorney.

I was once told to check my insurance provider for an umbrella coverage for liability. When I talked to my insurance agent he indicated that he was not aware of that and it was not possible through my homeowners insurance? Maybe the Municipal policy?

Maybe some here knows how that works?

 

[mtlogcabin]

You can delegate authority but you can't delegate responsibility.
Your responsibility is pretty much what you are doing. Training, State Certified, and not overloading their schedule where they do not have sufficient time to conduct a proper inspection.
Now you give them the authority to operate as your representative in the field and make inspection/decisions. The decisions they make that are not code compliant or contrary to their training and AHJ's policies and rules should be on them only. Your responsibility would be to deal with that inspector if and when you become aware of what they have done. If you don't then you are neglecting your responsibilities and may get caught up in the fallout.
As others have stated consult with the AHJ's attorney and I would suggest maybe even a private attorney who specializes in construction litigation.
When a lawsuit is filed they usually name everyone they can think of in the initial suit. Getting your name dropped from the suit would be a priority IMHO


[A] 103.3 Deputies.
In accordance with the prescribed procedures of this jurisdiction and with the concurrence of the appointing authority, the building official shall have the authority to appoint a deputy building official, the related technical officers, inspectors, plan examiners and other employees. Such employees shall have powers as delegated by the building official.

 

[ICE]

As a supervisor, like it or not, you are credited for their successes and their failures.

 

[Mark K]

If you do not want liability stay within your lane. Only require or allow what the code/law explicitly requires. Do not impose your personal morality or level of risk on others.

Be careful that your jurisdiction has the legal authority to adopt the regulations and that the local building codes were properly adopted.

 

[tmurray]

The other big thing as a supervisor is making sure you are not assigning duties outside of the employee's competency without additional checks and balances to verify their work meets the intended standard until such a time as they become competent.

Ensuring consistency in the level of service is anther one that should be included as well. It gets challenging when you have a superstar inspector who can get into the weeds on everything, but other inspectors can't hit that level of detail on everything they are looking at.

 

[ICE]

Ensuring consistency in the level of service is anther one that should be included as well. It gets challenging when you have a superstar inspector who can get into the weeds on everything, but other inspectors can't hit that level of detail on everything they are looking at.

The solution to that quandary requires breaking down the will of the superstar inspector. That sounds awful. But really now, what is this superstar inspector. I don't think I've met one. In my estimation there are two types of inspector. One is competent and the other is not. One should be allowed to perform inspections and the other should not. If one is a superstar, all are superstars.

What inspectors are called upon to know and do is just not that complicated. Okay, there is a stack of books....well not anymore....now it's all on a computer. People point to the trove of knowledge and say it takes a superstar to retain all of that. Wrong, just so wrong...it would take a savant to retain all of that.

Nobody needs to know it all because it is all available in detail at your fingertips. To be a so called superstar one needs to be willing to explore...always wonder if there's a code for that and then go looking for it. Is that getting into the weeds?

That sounds like a reasonable expectation for building department staffing. For you little AHJs it's within the realm. The big outfits can forget it.....it's a utopia that you'll never see.

For twenty-five years I was so far into the weeds that I could see the curvature of Earth. I was told time and time again to not write so many corrections.....told that I could not write corrections on top of another inspector's approval. The bar was low enough to accommodate all manner of mistakes. The goal was moved from enforcing code to pleasing the masses. They are equals and everybody gets a star. And all of this is because competent inspectors are apparently, difficult to find. I escaped with my honor intact.