A sixteen million dollars damages award against Invercargill City
following Southland Indoor Leisure Centre’s catastrophic roof collapse was cut
in half by the Supreme Court. The
Leisure Centre itself was partly to blame by not following up on an earlier
engineering report.
IAG
Insurance paid out when the Leisure Centre roof collapsed in 2010 under weight
of snow. IAG then took legal action in
the name of the Leisure Centre against Invercargill City alleging negligence by
Council when signing off on construction.
A compliance certificate was issued without checking construction
complied with the building code. The
primary cause of the roof collapse was a missing weld in one roof truss; if in
place the roof would have held.
Supreme
Court judges were split 3-2 over whether the Leisure Centre was partly to
blame. The majority ruled there was
contributory negligence. When the
Leisure Centre sought expert engineering advice in 2006 about persistent roof leaks,
it also asked for an ‘assessment of the roof … to be certain it is absolutely
safe’. Concerns had been voiced
following contemporary media reports of a stadium roof collapse in Poland: 65
died and 170 were injured. The
engineering report recommended truss welds and support fixings be
inspected. No inspection was carried
out. Failure to inspect amounted to
contributory negligence, the Court ruled.
An inspection would most likely have identified the problem and seen the
roof strengthened. The Leisure Centre
was fifty per cent to blame for the subsequent roof collapse.
Southland Indoor Leisure Centre v. Invercargill City – Supreme Court
(14.12.17)
18.021