Hutchinson v. Dubeau, 62592
| Decision Date | 11 January 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 62592,62592 |
| Parties | HUTCHINSON v. DUBEAU et al. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Arnold Hammack, Albany, for appellant.
Alfred N. Corriere, Albany, for appellees.
The plaintiff sued to recover damages which she allegedly sustained when she purchased a tract of real estate in reliance upon an inaccurate plat prepared by the defendant, J. F. Dubeau, a registered surveyor. Also named as a defendant is Holland, Dubeau & Associates, Inc., an engineering and surveying firm for which Dubeau works. This appeal is from an order granting summary judgment to the defendants as to four of the five counts in the complaint, apparently based on the absence of contractual privity between the parties.
Dubeau was employed to prepare the plat not by the plaintiff but by the plaintiff's predecessor in title, who subsequently sold the land to the plaintiff. Dubeau testified in his deposition that the owner had requested the survey for the specific purpose of resolving a dispute regarding the southern boundary lines and that he (Dubeau) had no knowledge at the time that a sale was contemplated. He further testified that he had used a pre-existing plat furnished to him by the owner as a reference for depicting the remaining boundary lines, stating that since his survey verified the correctness of the southern boundaries as shown on that plat, he had no reason to believe it to be in error in any respect. However, because certain boundaries depicted in the pre-existing plat but not involved in his limited survey were in fact in error, his plat was in error to the same extent. The document bears on its face the following certification, signed by Dubeau: "I certify that this plat was drawn from data obtained by a field survey and is a true representation of the conditions as they existed on [the date of preparation]." The plaintiff contends that this certification renders the defendants liable to her in tort, despite the fact that she was not in privity of contract with them. Held:
There is authority under general tort principles for holding a professional surveyor liable to third persons with whom he is not in privity for negligent misrepresentations appearing in a plat, provided that the surveyor knew or should have known that such third persons would use and rely upon the plat in subsequent transactions involving the property. See Rozny v. Marnul, 43 Ill.2d 54, 250 N.E.2d 656, 35 A.L.R.3d 487 (1969); Tartera v. Palumbo, 224 Tenn. 262, 453...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bacon v. Arey
...distinctive and not dispositive of the issue. Id. at 471–72, 470 A.2d 838. For example, we reviewed a Georgia case, Hutchinson v. Dubeau, 161 Ga.App. 65, 289 S.E.2d 4 (1982), and observed that in Georgia, a statute “imposed upon registered [40 A.3d 471] land surveyors an obligation to assum......
-
Cook Consultants, Inc. v. Larson
... ... Elmer Fox & Co., 529 P.2d 806 (Utah 1974) (accountant) ... 3 See, e.g., Hutchinson v. Dubeau, 161 Ga.App. 65, 289 S.E.2d 4 (Ct.App.1982) (surveyor liable if knew or should have known ... ...
-
Duncan v. Missouri Bd. for Architects, Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, 52655
... ... Iowa State Commerce Commission, 200 N.W.2d 881 (Iowa 1972); Hutchinson v. Dubeau, 161 Ga.App. 65, 289 S.E.2d 4 (1982); South Dakota Building Authority v. Geiger-Berger ... ...
-
Bell v. Jones
... ... resulted from architect's negligent certification of faulty construction work); Hutchinson v. Dubeau, 161 Ga.App. 65, 66, 289 S.E.2d 4, 5 (1982) (architect who certified the accuracy of a ... ...