Opinion ID: 2378871
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: What is the measure of an engineer's duty of care?

Text: ¶ 23 A duty of care is necessarily limited to the level of care that is reasonable in the particular circumstances. In these circumstancesan engineer providing professional servicesthe usual measure of care, ordinary care, is not sensitive enough to the technical aspects of an engineer's professional responsibilities. What is reasonable care should be measured against what a reasonably prudent engineer would do. A higher degree of care, such as utmost care, would make engineers insurers and expose them to an intolerably high risk of liability. As Professor DeWolf and Mr. Allen note, an engineer does not and cannot insure or in any sense guarantee a satisfactory result. 16 DAVID K. DEWOLF & KELLER W. ALLEN, WASHINGTON PRACTICE: TORT LAW AND PRACTICE § 15.51, at 505 (3d ed.2006). Requiring utmost care would be unduly burdensome. We therefore hold the measure of reasonable care for an engineer undertaking engineering services is the degree of care, skill, and learning expected of a reasonably prudent engineer in the state of Washington acting in the same or similar circumstances. Cf. RCW 7.70.040(1) (defining the measure of care for health care providers). ¶ 24 We now turn to the scope of the duty of care.