Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Principle Violated By Engineer A
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/84#Confidentiality_Agreement_Non-Supersession_Principle_Violated_By_Engineer_A
Properties
Instance of
ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation
Applied to
Building occupants' safety
Confidentiality agreement
Electrical and mechanical code violations endangering occupants
Balancing with
Confidentiality Principle
Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits
Loyalty
Concrete expression
Engineer A treated the contractual confidentiality agreement as superseding his professional duty to disclose conditions constituting a danger to building occupants — the principle establishes that such agreements cannot override the paramount public safety obligation
Confidence
0.95
Importance
high
Interpretation
The confidentiality agreement, while legitimate for protecting business information, could not legally or ethically override Engineer A's professional duty to disclose conditions that posed a danger to building occupants — Engineer A's reliance on the agreement to justify non-disclosure constitutes an ethical violation
Invoked by
Building Owner Selling As-Is Client
Engineer A
Tension resolution
The public safety disclosure obligation overrides the contractual confidentiality agreement — Engineer A should have reported the code violations to appropriate authorities despite the agreement
Source Evidence
Source text
Under the terms of the agreement with the client, the structural report written by Engineer A is to remain confidential
Text references
Under the terms of the agreement with the client, the structural report written by Engineer A is to remain confidential
in view of the terms of the agreement, Engineer A does not report the safety violations to any third party
those deficiencies could cause injury to the occupants of the building
TTL
@prefix case84: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/84#> .
@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#> .
case84:Confidentiality_Agreement_Non-Supersession_Principle_Violated_By_Engineer_A a proeth:ConfidentialityAgreementNon-SupersessionofImminentDangerDisclosureObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession Principle Violated By Engineer A" ;
proeth:appliedto "Building occupants' safety",
"Confidentiality agreement",
"Electrical and mechanical code violations endangering occupants" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Confidentiality Principle",
"Faithful Agent Obligation Within Ethical Limits",
"Loyalty" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A treated the contractual confidentiality agreement as superseding his professional duty to disclose conditions constituting a danger to building occupants — the principle establishes that such agreements cannot override the paramount public safety obligation" ;
proeth:confidence "0.95" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "84" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T13:37:05.727947+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "84" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T13:37:05.727947+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The confidentiality agreement, while legitimate for protecting business information, could not legally or ethically override Engineer A's professional duty to disclose conditions that posed a danger to building occupants — Engineer A's reliance on the agreement to justify non-disclosure constitutes an ethical violation" ;
proeth:invokedby "Building Owner Selling As-Is Client",
"Engineer A" ;
proeth:principleclass "Confidentiality Agreement Non-Supersession of Imminent Danger Disclosure Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Under the terms of the agreement with the client, the structural report written by Engineer A is to remain confidential" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The public safety disclosure obligation overrides the contractual confidentiality agreement — Engineer A should have reported the code violations to appropriate authorities despite the agreement" ;
proeth:textreferences "Under the terms of the agreement with the client, the structural report written by Engineer A is to remain confidential",
"in view of the terms of the agreement, Engineer A does not report the safety violations to any third party",
"those deficiencies could cause injury to the occupants of the building" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 84 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T13:56:58.160060"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 84 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
84
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-01T13:37:05.727947+00:00
First case
84
Generated
2026-03-01T13:37:05.727947+00:00
Attributed to
Case 84 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T13:56:58.160060
Generated by
ProEthica Case 84 Extraction