Architects Deny Responsibility for Poor Inspections

The architects who are designing Mather House have denied newspaper reports that they will pay damages in the $1.6 million settlement against them and two other firms for faulty construction of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Jamaica Plain.

The Boston Globe and the Record-American reported that Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott, who also designed Quincy and Leverett Houses, were charged with negligent inspection of the building by the Federal government.

But Richardson said yesterday that his firm had not been responsible for the inspections and he did not think it would have to pay. He said that another of the defendants in the suit, Charles T. Main, Inc., an engineering firm, was responsible for inspections.

The hospital was built in 1952 and began to crumble a year later. It is expected that the Philadelphia contractors who built it, McCloskey and Co., Inc. will pay the major part of the settlement. But who will pay the rest is unclear.

The Justice Department lawyer who handled the case said yesterday that to his knowledge the architects were not responsible for making inspections, but since they were named in the original contract with the government they may be legally liable.