By: Amanda Parker Baggett
The Slavin Doctrine has been on the books for more than fifty years and is a favorite defense used by contractors, architects and engineers defending against personal injury and wrongful death claims. Generally, the Slavin doctrine absolves a contractor, architect or engineer from liability for injuries or death sustained by third parties when: (1) the injuries occur after the project has been completed, (2) the owner of the project accepted the work, and (3) the defects complained of were open, obvious and discoverable to the owner at the time of acceptance.
Proving that a defect was open, obvious and discoverable to an owner at the time of acceptance is often the biggest hurdle faced by contractors, architects and engineers when invoking the Slavin doctrine. Over the years, Florida courts have dealt with a variety of defective conditions in the Slavin context.Recently, the Fifth District Court of Appeal dealt with the Slavin doctrine in a case involving guardrail ends along the Florida Turnpike. The case arose from a single car accident in which the passenger sustained fatal injuries when the passenger side of the car struck the end of a guardrail at an emergency crossover opening along the Turnpike. The plaintiff filed a wrongful death action against the contractor, engineer and others involved in the construction project, alleging that the ends of the guardrail were negligently designed and constructed. The plaintiff contended that crash cushions should have been installed on the guardrail ends and had crash cushions been present, the fatality would not have occurred.
