Court Opinion

ID: 9601892
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 01:50:39.168492+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:59.825896
License: Public Domain

Hill, Presiding Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent in Case No. 38460. As an employee of Paul Bush Realty, Frank Bush prepared the drawings for a $160,000 condominium to be sold to others and a $150,000 office building to be leased to others. Frank Bush is not a licensed architect. His activities come within the definition of the “practice of architecture.” Code Ann. § 84-301.
Code Ann. § 84-321 exempts certain activities which might otherwise come within the definition of the practice of architecture. After specifying the exemptions, Code Ann. § 84-321 provides: “Otherwise any person who shall be engaged in the planning or design for the erection, enlargement or alteration of any building or group of buildings for others... shall be deemed to be practicing architecture . . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)
The majority takes the qualification relating to exemptions and makes it the definition of the practice of architecture. Besides being contrary to the rules of statutory construction, the result will be the collapse, or consumption by fire, of a building and death of its occupants because the majority opinion permits unlicensed carpenters and brick masons working “in-house” to design large condominiums, retirement homes and hotels for contractors, real estate companies and speculators anxious to cut costs. When this disaster occurs, I want it to be recorded that I dissent.