The Vital Role of Comprehensive Plan Review in Construction

[steveray]

In my state, building officials and their subordinates are indemnified by language in the code itself. The municipality, on the other hand, has to carry insurance or self-insure. I'm pretty certain most carry insurance.

Being indemnified does not mean you can't be sued. I've been sued -- in federal court -- along with my boss (the building official), the mayor, the zoning enforcement officer, and I think a couple of other municipal officials. The town's insurance paid for an attorney to defend us, and we got a good one. It was a bogus case anyway, and the result was that the case was thrown out when it finally reached a judge.

But we did get sued.

Glad that went the right way....I heard my name got brought up at some point during that process....

 

[bill1952]

I'm guessing there's not much to be gained filing suit against building departments nor their employees. Working on a project with both code and non code deficiencies, and the design professionals are the only defendants. Suggests to me the designers have more liability for complying with code than building officials.

 

[jar546]

I'm guessing there's not much to be gained filing suit against building departments nor their employees. Working on a project with both code and non code deficiencies, and the design professionals are the only defendants. Suggests to me the designers have more liability for complying with code than building officials.

What is the context of this post? What is meant by that statement? Are you trying to use liability as a measure of responsibility? As previously stated, anyone or any entity can be sued and sued successfully, including municipalities. There are settlements with municipalities all the time from lawsuits. No one has absolute immunity.
Each discipline, whether contractor, architect, engineer, or building official shares the same responsibility to work together and ensure a code-compliant construction project. Does it really matter that the architect has professional liability therefore making them more susceptible to litigation?

 

[Inspector Gadget]

I'm guessing there's not much to be gained filing suit against building departments nor their employees. Working on a project with both code and non code deficiencies, and the design professionals are the only defendants. Suggests to me the designers have more liability for complying with code than building officials.

Not sure about the law in the Excited States, but in Canada, there is a concept called joint and several liability, which when translated from lawyer into English, means "always sue the building department/municipality, because they have deep, taxpayer-funded wallets, and if the court assigns even a portion of the blame to the municipality, then they're on the hook to pay the settlement if others - like deadbeat or bankrupt contractors - cannot."

 

[bill1952]

Does it really matter that the architect has professional liability therefore making them more susceptible to litigation?

Yes, it does matter. A designer has more at stake - higher PL premiums - and much more to loose - like their registration - in code compliance than a code official. As noted by others above, the code makes the designer responsible for compliance with code.

 

[jar546]

Yes, it does matter. A designer has more at stake - higher PL premiums - and much more to loose - like their registration - in code compliance than a code official. As noted by others above, the code makes the designer responsible for compliance with code.

Higher PL premiums for a higher-paying career. Again, to me, not relevant. As a former owner of a third-party agency that provided building code services, I had very expensive E&O insurance based on permit fee volume. I was more of a target because of the insurance but the liability was just the same. I understand your point to a degree, however.

 

[bill1952]

Higher PL premiums for a higher-paying career. Again, to me, not relevant. As a former owner of a third-party agency that provided building code services, I had very expensive E&O insurance based on permit fee volume. I was more of a target because of the insurance but the liability was just the same. I understand your point to a degree, however.

BTW, Googling median salaries for architects and building officials suggests building officials are clearly paid more. Architecture is not a well paying career. I'll concede a few architect principals at the very top of their large firms earn more than the best paid building officials, but they also have the risks of ownership.

The independent contractor providing code services is interesting. They inevitably find many more items to flag in a plan review than municipal building departments. Draw your own conclusions.