Self-Caused Incapacity Non-Exploitation Principle Violated By Engineer A
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/127#Self-Caused_Incapacity_Non-Exploitation_Principle_Violated_By_Engineer_A
Properties
Instance of
Self-CausedIncapacityNon-ExploitationPrinciple
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#Self-CausedIncapacityNon-ExploitationPrinciple
Applied to
Engineer A Departing Engineer Starting Competing Firm
Engineer C Recruited Former-Employer Staff Engineer
Balancing with
Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint
Concrete expression
Engineer A first recruited Engineer C away from Firm X, then used Engineer C's anticipated departure — a departure Engineer A himself caused — as the factual predicate for telling Firm X's clients that Firm X would be unable to perform, without disclosing his own causal role in creating that alleged incapacity
Confidence
0.83
Importance
high
Interpretation
Engineer A's conduct represents a compound ethical violation: first causing the condition (Engineer C's departure) and then exploiting that self-caused condition as a competitive weapon against Firm X, with the deceptive omission of his own causal role
Invoked by
Engineer B Incumbent Firm Principal Discovering Competitor Misconduct
Tension resolution
The right to recruit staff and the right to compete do not extend to using the consequences of one's own competitive conduct as a misleading basis for disparaging a competitor's capability to that competitor's clients
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer A has contacted one of Firm X's employees, Engineer C, and offered her a position with Firm Y. Soon thereafter, Engineer B learns that Engineer A has contacted Firm X's clients and is making representations that because Engineer C is going to be leaving Firm X to work for Firm Y, Firm X will be 'hard pressed' to perform successfully on its projects.
Text references
Engineer A has contacted Firm X's clients and is making representations that because Engineer C is going to be leaving Firm X to work for Firm Y, Firm X will be 'hard pressed' to perform successfully on its projects
Engineer A has contacted one of Firm X's employees, Engineer C, and offered her a position with Firm Y.
TTL
@prefix case127: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/127#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case127:Self-Caused_Incapacity_Non-Exploitation_Principle_Violated_By_Engineer_A a proeth:Self-CausedIncapacityNon-ExploitationPrinciple,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Self-Caused Incapacity Non-Exploitation Principle Violated By Engineer A" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A Departing Engineer Starting Competing Firm",
"Engineer C Recruited Former-Employer Staff Engineer" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A first recruited Engineer C away from Firm X, then used Engineer C's anticipated departure — a departure Engineer A himself caused — as the factual predicate for telling Firm X's clients that Firm X would be unable to perform, without disclosing his own causal role in creating that alleged incapacity" ;
proeth:confidence "0.83" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "127" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T03:14:48.554502+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "127" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T03:14:48.554502+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Engineer A's conduct represents a compound ethical violation: first causing the condition (Engineer C's departure) and then exploiting that self-caused condition as a competitive weapon against Firm X, with the deceptive omission of his own causal role" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer B Incumbent Firm Principal Discovering Competitor Misconduct" ;
proeth:principleclass "Self-Caused Incapacity Non-Exploitation Principle" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer A has contacted one of Firm X's employees, Engineer C, and offered her a position with Firm Y. Soon thereafter, Engineer B learns that Engineer A has contacted Firm X's clients and is making representations that because Engineer C is going to be leaving Firm X to work for Firm Y, Firm X will be 'hard pressed' to perform successfully on its projects." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The right to recruit staff and the right to compete do not extend to using the consequences of one's own competitive conduct as a misleading basis for disparaging a competitor's capability to that competitor's clients" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A has contacted Firm X's clients and is making representations that because Engineer C is going to be leaving Firm X to work for Firm Y, Firm X will be 'hard pressed' to perform successfully on its projects",
"Engineer A has contacted one of Firm X's employees, Engineer C, and offered her a position with Firm Y." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 127 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T03:44:36.608694"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 127 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
127
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-01T03:14:48.554502+00:00
First case
127
Generated
2026-03-01T03:14:48.554502+00:00
Attributed to
Case 127 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T03:44:36.608694
Generated by
ProEthica Case 127 Extraction