The 64 brand-new houses have now been demolished, and the claim is for £12m in damages. The architect was put in the frame for blame. Nothing he did makes him the culprit; it is simply the facts of the case, plus a smidgen of law, that were said to make him liable. It must come hard when someone says, “We know that you have done absolutely nothing wrong but here is the bill for £12m.” It gets even harder when the bill is for the alleged errors and omissions of folk that you did not choose, nor were in contract with. 

Gorebridge is a town just south of Edinburgh. Midlothian council decided to develop the former mining area for these rather pleasant new homes. The council teed everything up perfectly, engaging architects, a principal engineer, a peer reviewer for contaminated land, a structural engineer and a ground investigation engineer. What could go wrong, you ask. 

The court would want the contract clause to be plain and obvious if it was to bind a party to such an unusual liability

Well, it all began to go wrong when 22 of the residents complained of headaches, dry coughs, dizziness and anxiety. Six ended up in hospital. They all recovered from what turned out to be carbon dioxide poisoning. The gas seeped through the fractured sandstone rock strata, the house foundations and underpinning, then through the cavity walls and finally down the residents’ throats. Seemingly there was no gas-proof membrane incorporated in the floor slab construction. It wasn’t specified. 

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