Central Hawke’s Bay District Council decides against legal action over strengthening works
The Central Hawke’s Bay District Council has decided not to pursue legal action against any individuals or entities regarding the strengthening of the Waipukurau Centennial Library and the Waipukurau Memorial Hall.
The decision was made in a Public Excluded Agenda item at Council's Finance and Infrastructure Meeting on Thursday, October 7 following the receipt of legal and engineering advice, and "after weighing up the costs, benefits and risks of further action", Mayor Alex Walker said.
At this meeting, Council formally received the legally privileged legal advice and independent engineering review – both of which will remain confidential and privileged.
Walker said: “This is not the result any of us wanted, but the time, money and risk involved in pursuing this matter is not in the best interests of our community".
In 2020, Council obtained seismic assessments on various Council facilities, including the Waipukurau Centennial Library and the Waipukurau Memorial Hall, as part of the development of asset management plans for the 2021-2031 Long Term Plan.
The Library has been closed since May last year after council received initial engineering advice that the building had significant structural vulnerabilities, and two months later a detailed seismic assessment confirmed a very high seismic risk - less than 20 per cent of the New Building Standard.
The Waipukurau Memorial Hall was also found to be earthquake-prone, being less than 20 per cent of the New Building Standard. Despite this, the Waipukurau Memorial Hall remained open, with structural issues not being of the same severity or extent as the Waipukurau Library.
Council says expectation was that both buildings had been strengthened to at least 67 per cent of the New Building Standard following works carried out between 2014 and 2017.
Following the receipt of those detailed seismic assessments, Council sought and obtained legal advice about whether Council could pursue legal action against any individuals or entities involved in the 2014-2017 works to recover any losses suffered by the Council. Through the legal advice, Council sought to understand the merits of any legal claims and the associated risks and costs of taking action.
Before seeking legal advice, Council undertook a comprehensive search of historic former staff emails, hard copy files, electronic documents, consent documents, photos and other documentation, in an attempt to better understand the steps taken from procurement of consultants to design, inspection, construction and sign-off on both buildings.
The comprehensive document search identified a number of internal Council reports to the Elected Council of the time, stating that the building work for both buildings included strengthening and that the strengthening work would achieve at least 67 per cent of the New Building Standard for both buildings.
However, the documentary record is limited. Although there were a small number of key documents and correspondence with external parties, many of the core documents that would be otherwise expected to be available (including contractual and briefing documents), are not.
As part of the legal advice, the Council obtained a preliminary expert engineering opinion about what design and build work was carried out, and whether that work carried out satisfied the requisite standard of care.
"After careful consideration of all of the evidence and advice obtained during the review, it has been concluded that it is not economically viable to take further action, having regard to the amount of damages that might be recoverable if we were successful, and the costs and risks of pursuing legal action," Walker said.
Chief Executive of the Council Monique Davidson said the council had weighed up and carefully considered the balance of the information available to proceed with any legal claim – including the costs of litigation, the potential compensation value that could be sought, the likely cost of remediation and the associated risks for each building.
"On the balance of these factors and the advice received, Council have confirmed it will not proceed with any further legal processes.”
