HB335 Summary

• Codifies Alabama common law regarding civil liability of professional firms providing construction monitoring services for public and private infrastructure projects funded or overseen by state and local awarding authorities.

• Shields professional firms and their employees from tort liability for property damage, personal injury, or death resulting from construction monitoring services that substantially comply with the awarding authority's requirements related to plan and specification compliance.

• Exempts the liability protection when firms are engaged solely to design and prepare engineering plans and specifications, or when they provide both monitoring and design services and deficiencies in the design proximately cause harm to third parties with whom the firm lacks a contract.

• Applies to the Alabama Department of Transportation, counties, cities, municipalities, and other state agencies that appropriate public funds for infrastructure construction, repair, resurfacing, or improvement projects.

• Became effective immediately upon passage and approval by the Governor, with House passage on May 2, 2013 and Senate passage on May 20, 2013.