The Project Manager is a figure of contractual form, whose scope and competencies, in the absence of a legal definition, depend on each Project Management contract.
According to that indicated by the First Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court (TS – Tribunal Supremo) in its ruling no. 529/2020, of the 15th October, “Given that it is not a regulated profession, we lack a definition or concept. This reinforces the idea that each of the competencies assumed will depend on each case of the Project Management contract itself”.
Furthermore, there is a variety of projects which can be subject to management: ranging from the construction of a hotel or a photovoltaic plant to the design of a new website.
In the case of the aforementioned judgment, in accordance with the Project Management contract, the project manager would be in charge of the successful completion of the construction of a dwelling owned by the claimant party.
The claimant party brought an action of responsibility for constructive faults covered by articles 1591 onwards of the Civil Code, and of article 17 of the Building Standards Law (LOE – Ley de Ordenación de la Edificación), and based its claims in second instance on the LOE, not on contractual responsibility.
As the SC indicates in its ruling: “The most authoritative doctrine understands that the deployment of the different activities to which the project manager is usually obliged makes them participate in and agree to the obligations which traditionally, and according to current legislation, have been allocated to other building agents”.
In order to determine the legal nature of the figure of the Project Manager in this specific case, the SC proceeded to analyse the functions assumed by said Project Manager in the building process, considering that their major participation in the whole construction process became apparent, when assuming the roles of management, control and verification of each of the construction items.
For this reason, the SC concluded that the role of project manager fitted with the generic concept of the building agent of article 8 of the LOE, and declared the responsibility of the entity which had acted as Project Manager.
In conclusion, the competencies assumed by the Project Manager in each contractual relationship must be taken into account in order to determine the scope of their responsibility regarding the execution of the work – in a broad sense – in each specific case.
Carla Villavicencio
Vilá Abogados
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Barcelona, on 28th May 2021
