Forwarded from an attorney friend in AL. (Shortened from 8 page ruling).
A county judge has ruled that as the county disclaims all responsibility for erroneous rulings incurred during the inspection process, then the county buildings dept. cannot invoke any penalties for presumed violations. It seems the judge is saying it must be a level playing field where the inspectors are liable for capricious rulings if the contractor is subject to sanctions. Looks as if AL is ahead of the pack in declaring that inspectors are held liable for their interpretations of codes and ordinances.
Rowdy

This sounds very strange!
As an employee of an electrical contractor, I'm not the one that gets sued if I make a mistake that causes a disaster.
The corporation I work for gets sued.
All they can do is fire me.
The default setting for any public entity is to deny all claims, but now they've got a judge backing this up?
(It looks like inspection wouldn't be such a great idea for my old age job after all?)

electure

You can be sued but they are looking for deep pockets.

[This message has been edited by walrus (edited 11-22-2003).]

Rowdy,

On Long Island our inspections are done by private agencies that have been accepted by the jurisdictions to do inspections. I believe they put up a big bond and the Agency could be held liable if it came down to it.

I think New Jersey and Penn. may have similar situations.

Bill

Just got off the phone with J. It appears that the judge said that since the county couldn't be sued for errors by inspectors, then the contractor could not be fined for errors.
Good Judge.
Rowdy

Good ruling...won't survive appeal.

Sounds fair to me!