Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Invoked Across All Three Cases
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/149#Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_to_Public_Danger_Invoked_Across_All_Three_Cases
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure
Applied to
Electrical/mechanical code violations in occupied building
Hazardous material drums on client property
Structural defects in litigated building
Balancing with
Confidentiality Principle
Public Welfare Paramount
Concrete expression
Across BER Cases 89-7, 90-5, and the current case, the Board consistently held that confidentiality obligations — whether contractual, attorney-directed, or business-motivated — do not bar engineers from disclosing or escalating conditions that constitute danger to the public, because such disclosure serves the public welfare purpose of the ethics code.
Confidence
0.95
Importance
high
Interpretation
Confidentiality is a relational principle that yields when public danger is present; the ethics code's public welfare purpose overrides the protective function of confidentiality in danger scenarios.
Invoked by
BER 89-7 Structural Engineer
BER 90-5 Forensic Engineer
Engineer B Hazardous Waste Supervisor
Tension resolution
In all three cases, the public danger threshold was met, causing confidentiality to yield to the disclosure obligation.
Source Evidence
Source text
we believe the basic principles enunciated in BER Cases 89-7 and 90-5 are applicable here as well except in a different context.
Text references
any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants
the Board reaffirmed the basic principle articulated in BER Case 89-7
we believe the basic principles enunciated in BER Cases 89-7 and 90-5 are applicable here as well except in a different context
TTL
@prefix case149: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/149#> .
@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#> .
case149:Confidentiality_Non-Applicability_to_Public_Danger_Invoked_Across_All_Three_Cases a proeth:ConfidentialityNon-ApplicabilitytoPublicDangerDisclosure,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Invoked Across All Three Cases" ;
proeth:appliedto "Electrical/mechanical code violations in occupied building",
"Hazardous material drums on client property",
"Structural defects in litigated building" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Confidentiality Principle",
"Public Welfare Paramount" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Across BER Cases 89-7, 90-5, and the current case, the Board consistently held that confidentiality obligations — whether contractual, attorney-directed, or business-motivated — do not bar engineers from disclosing or escalating conditions that constitute danger to the public, because such disclosure serves the public welfare purpose of the ethics code." ;
proeth:confidence "0.95" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "149" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "149" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Confidentiality is a relational principle that yields when public danger is present; the ethics code's public welfare purpose overrides the protective function of confidentiality in danger scenarios." ;
proeth:invokedby "BER 89-7 Structural Engineer",
"BER 90-5 Forensic Engineer",
"Engineer B Hazardous Waste Supervisor" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Non-Applicability to Public Danger Disclosure" ;
proeth:sourcetext "we believe the basic principles enunciated in BER Cases 89-7 and 90-5 are applicable here as well except in a different context." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "In all three cases, the public danger threshold was met, causing confidentiality to yield to the disclosure obligation." ;
proeth:textreferences "any such duty was superseded by the immediate and imminent danger to the building's tenants",
"the Board reaffirmed the basic principle articulated in BER Case 89-7",
"we believe the basic principles enunciated in BER Cases 89-7 and 90-5 are applicable here as well except in a different context" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 149 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T12:35:30.894133"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 149 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
149
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00
First case
149
Generated
2026-03-01T12:24:49.228652+00:00
Attributed to
Case 149 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T12:35:30.894133
Generated by
ProEthica Case 149 Extraction