Advising on damages liability for an underground telecom cable struck during construction

After a telecom cable buried about 6 meters underground was damaged during construction of a noise barrier for a residential land development project, we advised a construction company on its liability for damages and on the allocation of responsibility among the company, the project owner and the telecom carrier.

The questions were whether the contractor was liable for damages when the location of the buried cable was not marked on the relevant drawings and was not found even with a telecom carrier representative present on site, and how the project owner's failure to provide drawings and the carrier's failure to relocate the cable affected liability.

We analyzed the relevant laws and case law to review the contractor's duty to investigate underground utilities and the requirements for limiting liability. In particular, we analyzed the possibility of exemption from liability and comparative negligence, focusing on the extent to which advance safety measures such as test excavation had been carried out, whether a cable lying outside the usual burial depth could have been discovered, and the causal link between not checking drawings and the accident.

We also reviewed whether the company could claim damages for construction delays and equipment costs on the ground that the telecom carrier had failed to relocate the cable.

We advised that, depending on the advance safety measures taken and how the cable was buried, the contractor could argue for exemption from or limitation of liability, and could also contest the causal link between not checking drawings and the accident. However, we concluded that a separate damages claim based on the carrier's failure to relocate the cable lacked a sufficient legal basis.