Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Invoked in BER 90-5 Attorney Direction
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/137#Confidentiality_Agreement_Non-Supersession_Invoked_in_BER_90-5_Attorney_Direction
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
Applied to
BER Case No. 90-5 attorney confidentiality instruction regarding structural defects
Balancing with
Confidentiality
Forensic Expert Non-Advocate Status in Civil Litigation
Concrete expression
The attorney's instruction to the engineer in BER 90-5 to maintain confidentiality over discovered structural defects — because they were part of litigation — did not legally or ethically bind the engineer when those defects constituted an immediate and imminent threat to tenant safety
Confidence
0.97
Importance
high
Interpretation
Attorney-directed confidentiality in litigation context is superseded by immediate and imminent danger to building occupants; the engineer's compliance with the attorney's instruction was unethical
Invoked by
BER 90-5 Engineer Attorney-Directed Confidentiality-Bound Safety-Discovering Engineer
Tension resolution
Board held that any purported legal duty of confidentiality was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to tenants
Source Evidence
Source text
the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants.
Text references
Upon reporting the findings to the attorney, the engineer was told he must maintain this information as confidential because it was part of the lawsuit. The engineer complied with the request.
the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants.
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_90-5_Attorney_Direction a proeth:ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Invoked in BER 90-5 Attorney Direction" ;
proeth:appliedto "BER Case No. 90-5 attorney confidentiality instruction regarding structural defects" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Confidentiality",
"Forensic Expert Non-Advocate Status in Civil Litigation" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The attorney's instruction to the engineer in BER 90-5 to maintain confidentiality over discovered structural defects — because they were part of litigation — did not legally or ethically bind the engineer when those defects constituted an immediate and imminent threat to tenant safety" ;
proeth:confidence "0.97" ;
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 "Attorney-directed confidentiality in litigation context is superseded by immediate and imminent danger to building occupants; the engineer's compliance with the attorney's instruction was unethical" ;
proeth:invokedby "BER 90-5 Engineer Attorney-Directed Confidentiality-Bound Safety-Discovering Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession of Imminent Danger Disclosure Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Board held that any purported legal duty of confidentiality was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to tenants" ;
proeth:textreferences "Upon reporting the findings to the attorney, the engineer was told he must maintain this information as confidential because it was part of the lawsuit. The engineer complied with the request.",
"the Board discounted the attorney's statement that the engineer was legally bound to maintain confidentiality, noting that any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 137 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T05:45:21.969254"^^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
2026-03-01T05:45:21.969254
Generated by
ProEthica Case 137 Extraction