Douglas Wilhelm Harder MMath LEL Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada eceuwaterlooca dwharderalumniuwaterlooca 2013 by Douglas Wilhelm Harder Some rights reserved ID: 724736
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Tort Law:Concurrent Tortfeasors
Douglas Wilhelm Harder,
M.Math
. LEL
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
ece.uwaterloo.ca
dwharder@alumni.uwaterloo.ca
© 2013 by Douglas Wilhelm Harder. Some rights reserved.Slide2
Outline
An introduction to the engineering profession, including:
Standards and safetyLaw: Charter of Rights and Freedoms, contracts, torts, negligent malpractice, forms of carrying on businessIntellectual property (patents, trade marks, copyrights and industrial designs)Professional practiceProfessional Engineers ActProfessional misconduct and sexual harassmentAlternative dispute resolutionLabour Relations and Employment LawEnvironmental Law
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Vicarious LiabilitySlide3
Concurrent Tortfeasors
It is possible for more than one party to breach a duty of care which results in an injury
In this case, the damages would be covered by all parties
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Concurrent Tortfeasors
Consider the case of
Corporation of District of Surry v
Carrol-Hatch et al., 1979In designing a Police Station, the architect and engineers made two shallow test pitsThe engineers recommended deep soil testsThis was rejected by the architect and the engineers submitted their report based on an examination of the shallow pitsOnce the building was complete, settlement require significant additional structural changesDeep soil tests would have revealed the issues affecting the building
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Concurrent Tortfeasors
In
Corporation of District of Surry v
Carrol-Hatch et al., 1979, the court foundThe owner was relying on the professional judgment of both the architect and the engineers and this established a duty of careThe engineers could not remove that duty of care by accepting the architect’s decision when they did know or should have known betterThe court allocated fault as follows: The architect: 60 % The engineers: 40 %
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Professional Misconduct
Can a professional engineer abrogate responsibility to another party?
72(2)(f) For the purposes of the Act and this Regulation, “professional misconduct” means, failure of a practitioner to present clearly to the practitioner's employer the consequences to be expected from a deviation proposed in work, if the professional engineering judgment of the practitioner is overruled by non-technical authority in cases where the practitioner is responsible for the technical adequacy of professional engineering work.Vicarious Liability6Slide7
References
[1] D.L. Marston, Law for Professional Engineers, 4th Ed., McGraw Hill, 2008.
[2] Julie Vale, ECE 290 Course Notes, 2011.
[3] Wikipedia, http://www.wikipedia.org/ These course slides are provided for the ECE 290 class. The material in it reflects Douglas Harder’s best judgment in light of the information available to him at the time of preparation. Any reliance on these course slides by any party for any other purpose are the responsibility of such parties. Douglas W. Harder accepts no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any party as a result of decisions made or actions based on these course slides for any other purpose than that for which it was intended.
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Vicarious Liability