A SOLICITORS could be landed with a bill of more than £30,000 after a court hearing ruled they had used the wrong words in a case over the height of a new school building.
The London Appeal Court found Preston-based Banks Wilson liable for damages for professional negligence over their wording of a height restriction on an extension to Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, in West Park Road, Blackburn.
When the school bought the land to build a new sixth form centre it was told any new building must be no higher than the existing school. But the legal battle centred on whether this meant the height of the roof ridge or the height of the chimney pots.
The ruling at the appeal court against the solicitors followed an unsuccessful challenge by the school last October claiming £30,000 from the solicitors. The case was dismissed by a judge in Manchester.
The school claimed that a partner in Banks Wilson, Mr George Erdozain, was negligent in drafting a restrictive covenant in the conveyance arguing that the use of the word "height" was ambiguous.
The court was told that in 1993 the school bought some adjoining land in West Park Road from an AK Choudhry.
The following year work started on the new building, designed by the school's architect. Its height was higher than the roof ridge of the existing building but lower than the chimney pots. But when Mr Choudhry complained that the new building was too high and would affect a retirement home he owned nearby, the school sought advice from Mr Erdozain -- who, the court heard, said the new building could go up to the same height as the chimney pots.
But in 1995 when the roof trusses were installed, the school decided to redesign the roof at an additional cost of £30,000 after Mr Choudhry's solicitors threatened to seek a court order blocking the development.
Backing the school's claim against the solicitors, Lady Justice Arden, at the Appeal Court in London, said the wrong conclusion had been reached in Manchester last October.
She said in the circumstances the solicitors should have pointed out that there was a significant risk of dispute over the height of the development. The court ordered the matter to be sent back to the High Court in Manchester for the amount of damages to be assessed.
Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School today declined to comment.
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