Legal Adviser: Liability for Specified Products

Most contractors who install products called out in the drawings and specifications assume that they are not responsible if a specified item fails. This assumption has its roots in a 1918 U.S. Supreme Court case known as the Spearin doctrine which, simply stated, determined that in most cases a contractor’s agreement provides an implied warranty only for the contractor’s own work; manufacturers’ warranties are assigned to the owner upon completion of the project. If there is a problem with an item, the owner contacts the manufacturer for service. While this may create some PR problems for the contractor, it frees him from responsibility for repair or replacement of an item he didn’t build. A recent federal appellate decision decided