Qn: An Engineer may be asked to provide engineering services to friends, neighbors, or

community organizations of which the Engineer may be a member. Quoting references

from tort law and the Relevant precedence cases in Uganda or similar jurisdictions
(available from https://ulii.org), discuss whether an Engineers can be liable for losses or
damages arising when engineering services are provided without any fee being charged?
To answer the question above, we choose to thoroughly assess the aspects of tort below;
 Duty of care
 Breach of duty of care
 Causation
Fair work commission; A volunteer is someone who enters into any service of their own free
will, or who offers to perform a service or undertaking for no financial gain.
Duty of Care towards Plaintiff
To ascertain the liability of the Engineers in the above case, the plaintiffs have the onus of
proving that there existed a duty of care towards them that ought to have been followed by the
Engineers.
Say a Muslim Engineer offers to build a mosque for his Muslim society free of charge and on
one Juma (prayer day) the mosque collapses and kills half of the congregation and leaves the rest
severely hurt and injured. The inflicted go ahead to seek compensation from the courts of law for
the damages caused by the Engineer’s negligence.
In the case drawn above, Engineers being professionals and knowing prima facie the purpose of
the project, they sure had a duty to care to make sure the project met all the requirements
necessary for it to not cause any damages and not for any losses to spring up.
The court must apply some standard to determine whether the engineer’s conduct was Negligent.
The standard applied is based on the premise that engineers have a duty to use the reasonable
care and skill of engineers of ordinary competence. The reasonable care is measured by
applicable professional standards of the engineering profession at the time the services are
performed.
If determined that say the Engineers had vast experience while executing the above, they will
surely be held responsible for the damages and losses in case they arise and it will be the exact
opposite if the court determines otherwise.
Breach of duty of care
Having determined that the Engineers surely had a duty of care to perform towards