Design Professionals’ Duty Of Care Extends To Future Residential Purchasers.

A homeowners association brought an action for construction defects which made the homes unsafe and uninhabitable. Two of the defendants are architectural firms which allegedly designed the homes in a negligent manner but did not make the final decisions regarding how the homes would be built. When the case reached the California Supreme Court on the issue of duty, the court stated: “Building on substantial case law and the common law principles on which it is based, we hold that an architect owes a duty of care to future homeowners in the design of a residential building where, as here, the architect is a principal architect on the project — that is, the architect, in providing professional design services, is not subordinate to other design professionals. The duty of care extends to such architects even when they do not actually build the project or exercise ultimate control over construction.” (Beacon Residential Community Association v. Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP  (Cal. Sup. Ct.; July 3, 2014) (Case No. S208173).)