Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Invoked in BER 89-7
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/137#Confidentiality_Agreement_Non-Supersession_Invoked_in_BER_89-7
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
Applied to
BER Case No. 89-7 decision not to report code violations to public authorities
Balancing with
Confidentiality
Loyalty
Concrete expression
The engineer's contractual confidentiality agreement with the building owner did not supersede the obligation to report electrical and mechanical code violations — which could cause injury to building occupants — to appropriate public authorities
Confidence
0.95
Importance
high
Interpretation
Contractual confidentiality terms cannot override the paramount public safety obligation when the engineer has knowledge of conditions that could injure building occupants
Invoked by
BER 89-7 Engineer Confidentiality-Bound Structural Safety Discovering Engineer
Tension resolution
Board held that the paramount nature of the public safety obligation required the engineer to report violations to appropriate public authorities notwithstanding the confidentiality agreement
Source Evidence
Source text
in view of the terms of the agreement, the engineer did not report the safety violations to any third parties.
Text references
In determining that it was unethical for the engineer not to report the safety violations to appropriate public authorities, the Board, citing cases decided earlier, noted that the engineer 'did not force the issue, but instead went along without dissent or comment.'
in view of the terms of the agreement, the engineer did not report the safety violations to any third parties.
TTL
@prefix case137: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/137#> .
@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#> .
case137:Confidentiality_Agreement_Non-Supersession_Invoked_in_BER_89-7 a proeth:ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Invoked in BER 89-7" ;
proeth:appliedto "BER Case No. 89-7 decision not to report code violations to public authorities" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Confidentiality",
"Loyalty" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The engineer's contractual confidentiality agreement with the building owner did not supersede the obligation to report electrical and mechanical code violations — which could cause injury to building occupants — to appropriate public authorities" ;
proeth:confidence "0.95" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "137" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T05:31:01.524283+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "137" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T05:31:01.524283+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Contractual confidentiality terms cannot override the paramount public safety obligation when the engineer has knowledge of conditions that could injure building occupants" ;
proeth:invokedby "BER 89-7 Engineer Confidentiality-Bound Structural Safety Discovering Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession of Imminent Danger Disclosure Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "in view of the terms of the agreement, the engineer did not report the safety violations to any third parties." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Board held that the paramount nature of the public safety obligation required the engineer to report violations to appropriate public authorities notwithstanding the confidentiality agreement" ;
proeth:textreferences "In determining that it was unethical for the engineer not to report the safety violations to appropriate public authorities, the Board, citing cases decided earlier, noted that the engineer 'did not force the issue, but instead went along without dissent or comment.'",
"in view of the terms of the agreement, the engineer did not report the safety violations to any third parties." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 137 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T05:45:21.968885"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 137 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
137
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T05:31:01.524283+00:00
First case
137
Generated
2026-03-01T05:31:01.524283+00:00
Attributed to
Case 137 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T05:45:21.968885
Generated by
ProEthica Case 137 Extraction