Washington Supreme Court overturns "completion and acceptance" doctrine.
Just this week on January 18th, the Supreme Court of the State of Washington in Davis v. Baugh Industrial Contractors Inc. No. 76696-7, overturned the "completion and acceptance" doctrine. The doctrine has long existed in common law. It provides that when a contractor completes his work and it is accepted by the owner, the contractor is no longer liable to third parties for negligence.
In Davis, Baugh installed underground high density polyethelene pipes for Glacier Northwest at a processing facility. The work was completed and accepted in April 1997. In December 2000 Glacier noticed a pond forming. A foreman for Glacier, Alan Davis, took a crew out and dug up the pipe which was leaking. While Davis was in the hole with the pipe a wall of the excavation collapsed and two ton and a half concrete blocks fell in the hole and killed him. The Plaintiff Personal Representative alleged that Baugh was negligent as the Plaintiff suspected the pipe, which is supposed to last 100 years, was either gouged or dented when it was installed.
Baugh moved for summary judgment citing the "completion and acceptance" doctrine and the trial court found in favor of Baugh. On appeal the Supreme Court overturned the summary judgment order and the "completion and acceptance" doctrine that had supported the judgment. The Court instead favored Restatement (Second) of Torts Sec. 385 which holds that a contractor is liable for injury or damages to third parties when it is reasonably foreseeable that third parties could be injured by the contractor's negligence regardless of the completion and acceptance rule. The Court reasoned that the rule was based on many outdated concepts such as "privity of contract". The Court further noted that 37 other states had abandoned the doctrine and that the six year statute of repose, RCW 4.16.030, would protect the contractor from limitless liability.
The vote was 6-3 with Thomas Chambers writing the majority opinion.
