The water line itself may fall on the contractor. He is usually the one responsible for calling CBYD. The Easement itself would probably fall on 1) the surveyor and 2)the title company.
Here in hydrocarbon country...
That's sad. Although hardly in the middle of nowhere. Digging in the dark in a known pipeline area after some of the markings have disappeared. What was that guy thinking?
Looked at the NY law and it does require a call if mechanized equipment is involved (with the exception of vacuum excavation). Requirement is on the excavator so they would definitely be liable if they didn't call. Operator (water line owner) would be liable if they were not participating in the system and so the one call didn't find the line.
Seems like the one call system would shift the liability off of the surveyor in any excavation situation, but not necessarily a design situation or sale that failed to turn up the easement. So the surveyor is still liable in this situation if they failed to perform a reasonable search under the circumstances.
I recall a NY case where the surveyor used design drawing to locate an underground easement. One call was used, markings were made, excavator hit the line 15 feet from where is was supposed to be. Other surveyors in the area testified that it was normal practice to also obtain and use the as-built drawings (which showed the true location), so surveyor was negligent (even though one call got it wrong also).
Here in hydrocarbon country...
"I recall a NY case where the surveyor used design drawing to locate an underground easement. One call was used, markings were made, excavator hit the line 15 feet from where is was supposed to be. Other surveyors in the area testified that it was normal practice to also obtain and use the as-built drawings (which showed the true location), so surveyor was negligent (even though one call got it wrong also)."
Isn't there some distinction to be made between a contractual obligation to define an easement, and locating underground utilities ?
How is locating a record easement synonymous with locating utilities ?
I've noticed engineers shift this liability with the boilerplate: "Contractor to verify the existence of all underground utilities prior to excavation."