The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit weighed in on the side of designers regarding liability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Courts have ruled both ways on the question of designer liability under the ADA, but until August 6, 2001, no case had reached the Court of Appeals level in the Ninth Circuit. That silence came to an end in Lonberg v. Sanborn Theaters, Inc., ___ F.2d ___ (9th Cir. 2001) when the Court of Appeals held that designers are not within the class of persons who can be sued under the ADA. Until the Supreme Court addresses this issue, designers in the western states are not subject to lawsuits under the ADA based on their designs.

The Unsettled Question of Designer Liability Under the ADA

The New Law of the Ninth Circuit

One Caveat . . .
Although designers are not directly liable under lawsuits for the failure to design or construct in accordance with the ADA, this does not mean that the designer will escape all liability for designs that do not comply with the Act's requirements. It is very likely that any owner or operator sued for a project designed out of compliance will probably assert a negligence claim against the designer. But such a claim will concern standard of care issues, rather than the civil rights claims involved in an ADA suit.

Copyright 2001 The American Institute of Architects. All rights reserved.