The 5th DCA confirms that the Slavin doctrine applies to design professionals.
The plaintiff decedent was a passenger in a vehicle that struck an uncushioned roadway median guardrail end. The plaintiff sued the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the general contractor (GC) and the engineer who designed the guardrail. The GC and engineer both moved for summary judgment under the Slavin doctrine: the uncushioned roadway median as designed and constructed was accepted by the FDOT and was an open and obvious condition upon acceptance. Under the Slavin doctrine, a contractor cannot be held liable for injuries sustained by third parties when the injuries occur after the contractor completed its work, the owner of the property accepted the contractor’s work and the defects causing the injury were patent. The Slavin doctrine extinguishes the liability of a contractor for a defect by shifting the duty of care originally owed to others by the contractor to the accepting owner as long as any defects are patent. The GC’s motion was granted, but the engineer’s was denied. On appeal, the 5th DCA noted, “Even if [the engineer] violated its standard of care … summary judgment should have been granted in [its] favor based upon Slavin.”
Case Law Alerts, 1st Quarter, January 2015