Faithful Agent Trustee Duty Invoked Against Engineer A Current Client Solicitation
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/171#Faithful_Agent_Trustee_Duty_Invoked_Against_Engineer_A_Current_Client_Solicitation
Properties
Instance of
FaithfulAgentTrusteeDutyasGeneralLoyaltyandFairDealing
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#FaithfulAgentTrusteeDutyasGeneralLoyaltyandFairDealing
Applied to
Engineer A's solicitation of Engineer B's current clients during active employment
Balancing with
At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right
Client Autonomy in Engineering Service Provider Selection
Concrete expression
Engineer A, while still employed by Engineer B and having received a termination notice, solicited Engineer B's current clients without informing Engineer B, thereby breaching the faithful agent and trustee duty of loyalty, good faith, and disclosure.
Confidence
0.93
Importance
high
Interpretation
The faithful agent duty requires disclosure of competitive activities directed at the employer's current clients; covert solicitation while employed violates the duty regardless of the termination notice received.
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
Tension resolution
The Board held that the employer-initiated termination does not license covert solicitation of current clients; the faithful agent duty persists until actual departure and requires disclosure of competitive activities.
Source Evidence
Source text
An engineer is expected to act, at all times in professional matters for the employer, as a faithful agent and trustee (Section I.4.). That requires the engineer to recognize both a duty of loyalty and good faith. An essential aspect of those is the duty to disclose.
Text references
An engineer is expected to act, at all times in professional matters for the employer, as a faithful agent and trustee (Section I.4.).
An essential aspect of those is the duty to disclose.
That requires the engineer to recognize both a duty of loyalty and good faith.
it is concluded that Engineer A violated Section I.4. by failing to act as a faithful employee.
TTL
@prefix case171: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/171#> .
@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#> .
case171:Faithful_Agent_Trustee_Duty_Invoked_Against_Engineer_A_Current_Client_Solicitation a proeth:FaithfulAgentTrusteeDutyasGeneralLoyaltyandFairDealing,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Faithful Agent Trustee Duty Invoked Against Engineer A Current Client Solicitation" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A's solicitation of Engineer B's current clients during active employment" ;
proeth:balancingwith "At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right",
"Client Autonomy in Engineering Service Provider Selection" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A, while still employed by Engineer B and having received a termination notice, solicited Engineer B's current clients without informing Engineer B, thereby breaching the faithful agent and trustee duty of loyalty, good faith, and disclosure." ;
proeth:confidence "0.93" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "171" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T14:37:23.349304+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "171" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T14:37:23.349304+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The faithful agent duty requires disclosure of competitive activities directed at the employer's current clients; covert solicitation while employed violates the duty regardless of the termination notice received." ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review" ;
proeth:principleclass "Faithful Agent Trustee Duty as General Loyalty and Fair Dealing" ;
proeth:sourcetext "An engineer is expected to act, at all times in professional matters for the employer, as a faithful agent and trustee (Section I.4.). That requires the engineer to recognize both a duty of loyalty and good faith. An essential aspect of those is the duty to disclose." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The Board held that the employer-initiated termination does not license covert solicitation of current clients; the faithful agent duty persists until actual departure and requires disclosure of competitive activities." ;
proeth:textreferences "An engineer is expected to act, at all times in professional matters for the employer, as a faithful agent and trustee (Section I.4.).",
"An essential aspect of those is the duty to disclose.",
"That requires the engineer to recognize both a duty of loyalty and good faith.",
"it is concluded that Engineer A violated Section I.4. by failing to act as a faithful employee." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 171 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T14:51:15.287823"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 171 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
171
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-02T14:37:23.349304+00:00
First case
171
Generated
2026-03-02T14:37:23.349304+00:00
Attributed to
Case 171 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T14:51:15.287823
Generated by
ProEthica Case 171 Extraction