Drawing Revisions
Two professional engineers are assigned to the same project but are given responsibility for different parts of the project. Engineer A prepares designs and stamps drawings he is responsible for and Engineer B does the same. The project and drawings are released for construction. A change in project scope requires revision to a subset of drawings. Both Engineer A and Engineer B make their respective changes and revise the drawings they are responsible for.
It is the practice of the company the engineers work for to require a professional engineer to manually "initial" the revision block of the drawing being revised, identifying the responsible engineer. Engineer A delays release of his revisions which causes completed revisions by Engineer B to also be held until all drawings are ready to be released. Management pressures Engineer A to complete his work so that all drawings can be released. Engineer A completes his work at a point in time when neither Engineer B nor immediate management is available. In completing his work, Engineer A makes minor changes to drawings prepared and revised by Engineer B outside of the scope of the revision without consulting with Engineer B or management. These minor changes also create a design error.
Engineer A takes possession of drawings revised and "initialed" by Engineer B without his knowledge and has them destroyed. Engineer A creates a new set of Engineer B's revised drawings and "initials" them himself and releases with his drawings as his own work. At a later date, Engineer B discovers by accident the actions taken by Engineer A. Engineer B is never notified by Engineer A or management of what has taken place.
Who is responsible for the revised drawings released for construction? Has Engineer A acted ethically? Is Engineer A legally responsible for the design error in the revised drawing for which Engineer B was originally responsible and had prepared >99% of the design? What recourse should Engineer B take?
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