The architecture firm Foster + Partners has been cleared of responsibility for the death of Mick Ferris, a 53-year-old coach driver, who was killed by a window that fell 90 metres from a London penthouse in 2018.
A jury at Inner London Crown Court found St James, the project managers of The Corniche development, and Lindner Prater, the project’s engineers, guilty of safety breaches. The court heard that Mr Ferris was killed instantly when the 130kg window fell from the luxury tower block development on Albert Embankment.
The prosecution, brought by the Health and Safety Executive, argued that Mr Ferris's death was foreseeable. It was heard that a window panel had also fallen from the same development just over a year earlier, but no design changes were made.
The jury deliberated for over 11 hours before clearing Foster + Partners and the building’s design engineers, Wintech Ltd. St James and Lindner Prater were found to have failed in their duty to keep the public safe under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The court heard that the window had been blown off its hinges when the building was almost complete, and a restrictor designed to prevent this had been removed. The original design for the windows to open inwards was changed to outward-opening, but was reverted to inward-opening after Mr Ferris's death.