Loyalty Obligation of Engineer A to Former Client U.S. Government
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/170#Loyalty_Obligation_of_Engineer_A_to_Former_Client_U.S._Government
Properties
Instance of
Applied to
U.S. Government Dam Failure Investigation Client
Balancing with
Confidentiality Principle
Switching Sides Prohibition in Adversarial Proceedings
Concrete expression
Engineer A's acceptance of the contractor's retainer in a claim directly adverse to the U.S. government — the former client in the same dam failure matter — constitutes a breach of the residual loyalty obligation that persists after the formal engagement ends, because the new engagement directly exploits the position and knowledge gained in the prior relationship
Confidence
0.88
Importance
high
Interpretation
Loyalty to a client does not terminate upon completion of the engagement when the engineer subsequently seeks to use the fruits of that engagement against the former client; the temporal scope of loyalty extends to prohibit adverse participation in the same matter
Invoked by
Engineer A Dam Failure Forensic Investigation Engineer
Tension resolution
Residual loyalty to the U.S. government as former client reinforces the switching sides prohibition; the two principles converge on the same outcome — Engineer A must decline the contractor's retainer
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer A is retained by the U.S. government to study the causes of a dam failure. Later Engineer A is retained by the contractor on this project, who has filed a claim against the U.S. government for additional compensation.
Text references
Engineer A is retained by the U.S. government to study the causes of a dam failure.
Later Engineer A is retained by the contractor on this project, who has filed a claim against the U.S. government for additional compensation.
TTL
@prefix case170: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/170#> .
@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#> .
case170:Loyalty_Obligation_of_Engineer_A_to_Former_Client_U.S._Government a proeth:Loyalty,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Loyalty Obligation of Engineer A to Former Client U.S. Government" ;
proeth:appliedto "U.S. Government Dam Failure Investigation Client" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Confidentiality Principle",
"Switching Sides Prohibition in Adversarial Proceedings" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's acceptance of the contractor's retainer in a claim directly adverse to the U.S. government — the former client in the same dam failure matter — constitutes a breach of the residual loyalty obligation that persists after the formal engagement ends, because the new engagement directly exploits the position and knowledge gained in the prior relationship" ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "170" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T21:01:35.040886+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "170" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T21:01:35.040886+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Loyalty to a client does not terminate upon completion of the engagement when the engineer subsequently seeks to use the fruits of that engagement against the former client; the temporal scope of loyalty extends to prohibit adverse participation in the same matter" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Dam Failure Forensic Investigation Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "Loyalty" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer A is retained by the U.S. government to study the causes of a dam failure. Later Engineer A is retained by the contractor on this project, who has filed a claim against the U.S. government for additional compensation." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "Residual loyalty to the U.S. government as former client reinforces the switching sides prohibition; the two principles converge on the same outcome — Engineer A must decline the contractor's retainer" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A is retained by the U.S. government to study the causes of a dam failure.",
"Later Engineer A is retained by the contractor on this project, who has filed a claim against the U.S. government for additional compensation." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 170 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T21:17:58.659533"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 170 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
170
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-01T21:01:35.040886+00:00
First case
170
Generated
2026-03-01T21:01:35.040886+00:00
Attributed to
Case 170 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T21:17:58.659533
Generated by
ProEthica Case 170 Extraction