Legal Concepts for Engineers

1
Legal Concepts for Engineers

• Wentworth Institute of Technology
• ELEC 605 Senior Design Project I
• Prof. Tim Johnson

2
Accidents Happen

• Observe carefully the diagrams on the handout.
• Before the modification
• The nut in view A supported just the weight of
  one walkway.
• The rod supported all the weight.
• After the modification
• The nut on the lower right seen in view B
  supported the immediate walkway plus all the
  weight below.

3
Accidents are the results

• If the nut had been strengthen to handle the
  addition load, the accident wouldnt have
  happened.
• Most accidents are preventable.
• The most preventable accidents are the result
  of multiple, small causes.
• Overlooked details, lapse of judgment, and lack
  of familiarity, experience or knowledge are
  causes of accidents.

4
Accident Aftermath

• 114 dead
• 200 injured
• 2 engineers loses their licenses
• Construction firm loses their Certificate of
  Authority.

5
of the action not taken

• Trust, assumptions, and confidence are weak
  substitutes for verification.
• Injured parties can file for compensation in
  civil courts.
• The defendant can be anyone in the product chain
  connected with the product. This can include the
  engineer! Anyone can be held liable for the
  defect and the court will decide.

6
Legal Liabilities

• Liability is part of civil law.
• Civil law decides
• Who is a fault
• Who violated an agreement
• Who failed to keep a promise
• Basis for decision is the evidence or facts.
• Civil cases are decided on a preponderance of
  evidence.

7
Legal Liabilities, cont.

• Winners collect from the losers
• Property
• Monetary damages
• Rights
• Civil law is common law
• Based on tradition (what the normal course of
  business would obligate the parties to),
• And precedent (what a previous court decided in a
  similar case).
• Most common law has no specific statutory
  language.

8
Torts

• Liability law belongs to that branch of civil law
  known as torts.
• It does not include disputes over contracts and
  warranties.
• Tort reform refers to overhauling the liability
  system.
• Most cases are heard at the state level thus
  creating a different precedence for a different
  state.

9
Product Liability

• Issues of product liability are claims by a
  plaintiff concerning the characteristics of a
  product.
• The claims may be the result of the way the
  product was manufactured, serviced or repaired.
• Claims could result from the product manual.

10
History of Torts

• Originally, a plaintiff could claim damages only
  if the engineer and the manufacturer had an
  explicit (written) contract with their customers.
  Known as the privity doctrine.
• In 1916, when a wheel fell off a carthis
  existing contract doctrine was replaced with the
  doctrine of negligence.

11
Negligence

• Basis for negligence
• Design created a concealed danger.
• Failed to incorporate appropriate safety devices.
• Product was made from inadequate materials.
• Failure to warn user of the danger.
• There are difference degrees of negligence.

12
3 Types of Negligence

• Simple negligence
• Failure to exercise care and caution that an
  ordinary person normally would do.
• Gross negligence
• Intentional failure to perform an obvious duty
  regardless of the consequences to the user.
• Criminal negligence
• Such flagrant disregard for the safety of the
  user that it resulted in personal injury or death.

13
Strict Liability

• Since the 1960s, the plaintiff doesnt have to
  prove negligence.
• The manufacturer is liable if
• The product was defective and unreasonably
  dangerous, and
• the defect existed at the time the product left
  the defendants control, and
• the defect caused the harm, and
• the harm is appropriately assignable to the
  defect.

14
And the difference is

• Negligence considered the behavior of the
  defendant.
• Strict liability considers the behavior
  irrelevant.
• In strict liability, all that counts is the
  condition of the product.
• If no product is involved, negligence rules.

15
Defects

• Can be the result of a production error or a
  design error.
• A production error occurs when the product is not
  manufactured as intended.
• A design error rests with the engineer.
• The professor will talk about a design problem he
  encountered during his career.

16
Unreasonable danger

• Juries that are asked to consider whether or not
  a design is safe are told to use a test of
  reasonableness.
• They are asked to consider whether or not a
  reasonable person could expect a product (when
  operated as the plaintiff did) to fail and cause
  injury.

17
Compensation

• If the plaintiff wins, a monetary award is made.
  The plaintiff can ask for a certain amount in the
  papers filed originally.
• The award is made to compensate for the damages
  suffered (compensatory damages).
• Punitive awards are assigned to motivate the
  defendant to modify their behavior.

18
Engineering Design for Today

• Design to reduce exposure to liability.
• Recognize that the product will be used in
  careless or abusive ways and design accordingly.
• Courts have held that carelessness on the part of
  the user is not grounds for dismissal.

19
Additional Design Procedures

• Records must be kept to prove how well designed a
  product is.
• Engineers keep design journals that are records
  of their work.
• Conduct extensive tests.
• Results are recorded in the journal.
• Records must be kept of the manufacturing
  procedures and details.
• These too are kept in a journal.
• Careful preparation of product manuals.
• These are prepared from information in the
  journal.

20
In a wordExposure

• Reduce your companys exposure to liability by
  doing your best.
• Document everything. If you straighten up the
  stock room, write it down!
• If you arent happy with a design, neither will
  the customer.
• Your engineering journals are your records for
  this course. Incomplete records will
• exposed you to a lower grade.

21
Team Assignment Product Liability Assessment

• How do you envision your product being used?
• What could possibly go wrong with your design?
• How safe is your design?
• Who could get hurt?
• What would be their losses?
• Whos going to guarantee their loss?
• How could you design redundancy or robustness
  into your product to compensate for this problem?
• What standards will your product have to meet?