The S.C. Supreme Court upheld the limitation of liability clause in a home inspector’s contract ,which limited his liability to $475 (the cost of the services rendered). The court found that the clause was not unconscionable and that there was a correlation between the amount charged for the service and the liability that the home inspector was willing to undertake.
The following considerations were taken into account by the court in its ruling:
However, courts in other jurisdictions have also reached the opposite conclusion, especially in states with laws requiring home inspectors to carry General Liability and Professional Liability policies.
This S.C. Supreme Court ruling in Gladden v. Boykin will likely use the same reasoning when deciding the unconscionability issue in other types of contracts such as arbitration and indemnification.