Court Opinion

ID: 9523779
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:46:50.067447+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:07:39.854785
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE STOUDER, concurring in part and dissenting in part: I concur with the majority in its decision as to the nonliability of the village. I do not agree however that Hamilton can be held liable under a negligence theory because I do not believe that he breached any duty to the plaintiff. Like the majority, I agree that the privity requirement of traditional tort analysis has been discarded in favor of an analysis of the scope of duty. Where I take exception with the majority is in its analysis of the duty owed to plaintiff. Although Hunt v. Blasius (1978), 74 Ill. 2d 203, 384 N.E.2d 368, may in fact have finally discarded the general rule of nonliability of an independent contractor as the majority suggests, the further analysis of the Illinois Supreme Court regarding the duty owed is directly applicable to this case and mandates the opposite conclusion reached by the majority. In Hunt the defendant designed, manufactured and installed road signs which plaintiff argued were installed too close to the roadside, were not of a modern construction and should have had “break-away” posts. The Illinois Supreme Court found that “An independent contractor owes no duty to third persons to judge the plans, specifications or instructions which he has merely contracted to follow. If the contractor carefully carries out the specifications provided him, he is justified in relying upon the adequacy of the specifications unless they are so obviously dangerous that no competent contractor would follow them.” 74 Ill. 2d 203, 209, 384 N.E.2d 368, 371. Hamilton’s contract with Krusemark, the developer, called upon him to design and provide working drawings of a surface water drainage system for the subdivision which met the applicable code requirements of the village. There was no contention by any party that Hamilton’s plans failed to meet the requirements of the village’s ordinances which did not require specifications indicating the shape or depth of any channel. Furthermore, the depth and shape of a channel would be affected by adjacent development, and it was therefore impracticable to include these specifics in the plans prepared by Hamilton. Therefore, Hamilton had no duty other than to conform his plans to the applicable village ordinances and the record indicates that he did just that. Hamilton was not liable as a matter of law, and the court should have entered a judgment for defendant Hamilton notwithstanding the verdict of the jury. Since in my view the trial court should have granted a judgment notwithstanding the verdict in favor of both the village and the engineer, it becomes unnecessary to discuss the issue relating to the nature of the damages and the circumstances under which economic loss may be recovered. I have some doubt as to the manner in which this issue was resolved by the majority, since it would appear that different rules should be applicable to the recovery from the defendant builder and from the other parties to the action.