The Star: October 05, 2023

The Star Thursday October 5 2023
10
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Judge rules disciplinary action can be
taken against Reay over CTV disaster
• By Soumya Bhamidipati
THE professional engineering
body can take disciplinary
action against the man
whose company designed the
Canterbury Television building,
a judge has ruled.
The six-storey CTV building
collapsed during the February
22, 2011, earthquake, killing 115
people.
Engineering New Zealand
(ENZ – formerly known as the Institution
of Professional Engineers
New Zealand, or IPENZ) wants to
investigate whether Dr Alan Reay
should have better supervised
his employee who designed the
building.
However, Reay is calling for
the disciplinary action to be
abandoned because of how much
time has passed.
It follows years of litigation,
including judicial decisions on
whether a disciplinary committee
had the jurisdiction to
investigate someone who was no
longer a member of the professional
body.
Now, Justice Paul Radich has
ruled in ENZ’s favour.
“The disciplinary process is
able to, and should, see itself
through,” he said, noting the
court would not normally intervene
before a complaint process
was completed.
“I am satisfied that in this case
it continues to be in the public
interest to enable the disciplinary
committee to consider the complaints
substantively.”
At a hearing at the High
Court at Wellington last month,
Reay’s lawyer, Kristy McDonald,
Alan Reay
TRAGEDY:
The six-storey
CTV building
collapsed
during the
February
22, 2011
earthquake,
killing 115
people.
PHOTO:
GEOFF SLOAN
argued there was no explicit
requirement under the 1986
rules – when the building was
constructed – for her client to
supervise his employee.
She argued the agency had not
specified which rule her client
was meant to have broken, and
had drawn the matter out over
more than a decade.
There was no need to protect
the public, McDonald said, as
Reay was now 82 and had retired
from engineering.
Justice Radich said while the
1986 code did not refer explicitly
to supervision, it was implied in
how the provisions were worded.
“A member operating a
business that employs other
engineers will, if they are to act
professionally and with integrity,
and if they are to recognise their
responsibilities in the public
interest and to their profession,
supervise those employees,” he
said.
“Accordingly, it is for the disciplinary
committee to determine,
based upon evidence of the
nature of Dr Reay’s practice in
1986, whether his peers would
regard that conduct as being
in line with generally accepted
standards of the profession at the
time.”
While he acknowledged the
time that had elapsed, Justice
Radich found the delays should
not prevent the disciplinary
hearing from proceeding, and
would not unfairly impact Reay.
ENZ chief executive Dr Richard
Templer said he was encouraged
by the court’s decision.
“The reality is it’s been 12
years since the Christchurch
earthquake, whereby 115 people
tragically lost their lives when
the CTV building collapsed.
“People are looking for answers
and this decision confirms
this complaint must be allowed
to continue through the normal
process and be heard by a disciplinary
committee from the
profession.”
The disciplinary process would
begin as quickly as possible,
Templer said.
A 2012 Royal Commission of
Inquiry found Reay’s employee,
engineer David Harding, made
fundamental errors in designing
the building.
It criticised Reay for handing
sole responsibility for the design
over to somebody so inexperienced.
That same year, 54 family
members and the Ministry of
Building, Innovation and Employment’s
chief engineer made
complaints about both men to
the professional body.
A separate police
investigation, which concluded
in November 2017, resulted in
no criminal prosecution for the
building’s collapse.
– RNZ
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