By: Sarah Metcalfe State of Victoria (Department of Transport and Planning) v L.U. Simon Builders Pty Ltd & Ors At a glance In the subrogated recovery action brought by the State of Victoria against LU Simon and its directors in the County Court of Victoria (CI-23-03724) LU Simon argued that the State could not be […]
By: Angela Winkler and Chad Farah De Martin & Gasparini Pty Ltd v Bartlett [2025] NSWCA 56 At a glance The Court of Appeal upheld that DMG was vicariously liable for the unidentified worker’s negligence, based on circumstantial evidence showing the worker was likely DMG’s direct employee. The Court overturned the trial judge’s finding and […]
By: Charu Stevenson, James Clohesy and Chris Knight Pafburn Pty Limited v The Owners – Strata Plan No 84674 [2024] HCA 49 At a glance The High Court ruled that developers and builders cannot rely on proportionate liability defences for breaches of the DBP Act duty of care due to its non-delegable nature. The decision […]
By: Sarah Metcalfe, Andrew Brennan and Nick Lux At a glance The release of the Victorian Building Authority’s (VBA) independently commissioned report ‘Victorian Building Authority – The Case for Transformation’1 in October 2024 (VBA Report) provided the background to important reforms to the Victorian building regulatory regime recently announced by the Victorian Minister for Planning2 […]
By: Bill Conor and Julian Amato At a glance The court reaffirmed that claims for building defects made pursuant to the statutory warranties under section 32 of the Building Work Contractors Act 1995 (SA) must be filed within a strict 5-year period from practical completion, emphasising the Act’s balance between builder and homeowner interests. The 10-year […]
By: Sarah Metcalfe, Andrew Brennan and Nick Lux At a glance Cladding Safety Victoria (CSV) has released a report investigating who is responsible for the use of non-compliant combustible cladding in Victoria. CSV reviewed original plans and permits for 1,000 privately owned apartment buildings and concluded that responsibility for the ‘widespread misapplication of Victoria’s regulatory […]
By: Richard Flinn and Laura Glasson Rea v Auckland Council [2024] NZCA 313 In the recent decision of Rea v Auckland Council [2024] NZCA 313, the Court of Appeal provides a useful analysis of the elements required to assess when time starts to run for the purpose of assessing limitation, and in particular, for the […]
By: Charu Stevenson and Hamshini Sathiyamoorthy The Owners – Strata Plan No 84674 v Pafburn Pty Ltd [2023] NSWCA 301 At a glance From June 2020, section 37 of the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW) (DBP Act) introduced a new duty of care on those who carried out “construction work”. This article considers […]
At a glance The NSW Government has proposed a practice standard for engineers, which includes imposing a new obligation to ensure that designs for professional engineering work are “fit for purpose”. However, the existing regulatory framework for professional engineering work within the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 NSW (DBP Act) and Regulation already deals […]
WSP Structures Pty Ltd v Liberty Mutual Insurance Company t/as Liberty Specialty Markets [2023] FCA 1157 At a glance On 28 September 2023, the Federal Court of Australia found a liability policy covered a sub-contracting engineer and opened up double insurance claims. The case involved claims against WSP, the structural engineer for Sydney’s Opal Tower […]
