The use of a project manager to design and direct construction or repairs does not protect against any liability in the event of poor work, has ruled the Court of Cassation.
The client of this project manager risks having to answer, like this construction professional, for the damage that his work could cause a third party.
The Court of Cassation therefore rejected the arguments of an owner who maintained the opposite and explained that the recourse to a competent professional should transfer to the latter all the responsibility for the work since it was up to him to oppose unrealizable projects.
To build bigger and reduce the cost of its construction, this owner had decided that the perimeter of the site would be extended to the limit of the neighboring land, even if this land was located higher, and he had refused to build a wall intended to avoid a turmoil.
When the neighbor complained of seeing his land collapse on the one below, the works ordering officer considered himself out of the question since he had called in a professional contractor, precisely so that this decides what was possible and what was not.
He concluded that the entire responsibility for the damage rested with this professional contractor.
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But if the prime contractor has a responsibility, judged on the contrary by the Court of Cassation, his client cannot escape his own, linked to his requirements intended to minimize costs. And the distribution of responsibilities, and therefore the distribution of the cost of reparations, must be sovereignly decided by justice, according to the shares of fault of each, specified the judges.
(Cass. Civil 3, 16.11.2022, F 21-11.589).
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