Cases - Pirelli General Cable Works Limited v Oscar Faber & Partners
Record details
- Name
- Pirelli General Cable Works Limited v Oscar Faber & Partners
- Date
- [1983]
- Citation
- 2 AC 1
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Contract administration
- Summary
-
The defendant consulting engineers were employed by the claimant to advise on the design of a chimney that was subsequently built in 1969. It transpired that the design was defective in that it provided for inappropriate materials to be incorporated into the structure, and expert evidence determined that cracking, which was not actually discovered until 1977, manifested itself no later than 1970. With reasonable diligence, the claimant could have been expected to have discovered the cracking in 1972. Proceedings were issued in 1978; the defendant contended the same were time-barred.
The House of Lords held that a cause of action in tort accrues on the date of the damage itself, not from the date upon when such damage was discovered or ought reasonably to have been discovered. Consequently, the claimant's case was time-barred as the writ was served more than 6 years after 1970. (See also Oxford Architects v Cheltenham Ladies College.)