Obligation-Conflict Resolution
Case 97-13 (1997) · Duty To Report Unrelated Information Observed During Rendering Of Services
Professional obligations conflict, and the board applies no fixed rule for which one wins.
Each resolution is recorded as three edges:
competesWith (the tension),
prevailsOver (the obligation the board allowed to win in this case), and
defeasibleUnder (the situation under which the yielding obligation gives way).
The same tension is then traced across comparable cases, where its resolution shifts with context.
Hover any obligation or state to see its definition; click to open it in OntServe.
How this case resolved it competition structure in OntServe
Featured
Engineer A Faithful Agent Duty
prevails over
Engineer A Public Safety Duty
the two obligations are in tension (competesWith)
the yielding obligation gives way only under (defeasibleUnder):
- Client Report Omission Directive
What the board concluded
- It was ethical for Engineer A to retain the information in his engineering notes but not include it in the final written report as requested.
- It was ethical for Engineer A not to report this information to any other public agency or authority as long as corrective action is taken by the public agency within a relatively short period of time.
How comparable cases resolved this and related tensions
Read at the type level, this resolution is: Safety Obligation yields to Faithful Agent Obligation. Comparison across cases happens at this level; the duty types recur while each case's obligations instantiate them. Cases below are grouped by how much of that pairing they share. A duty type that yields here may prevail elsewhere, which is the context-dependence itself, not an inconsistency.
Same tension: both duty types match, so the board ruled on this exact pairing. Related tension: only one duty type matches; the other duty differs, so these show how a type behaves elsewhere rather than a ruling on this pairing.
| Case | Prevailing type | Yielding type | Relation to this case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Same tension: both duty types match (4) | |||
|
24-1
Balancing Client Directives and Public...
|
Safety Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | Same tension, resolved the opposite way |
|
76-4
Public Welfare - Knowledge of Information...
|
Safety Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | Same tension, resolved the opposite way |
|
89-7
Duty To Report Safety Violations
|
Safety Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | Same tension, resolved the opposite way |
|
92-6
Public Welfare - Hazardous Waste
|
Safety Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | Same tension, resolved the opposite way |
| Related tension: one duty type matches (14) | |||
|
89-7
Duty To Report Safety Violations
|
Safety Obligation | Confidentiality Obligation | The yielding type here prevails there |
|
18-9
Public Health and Safety—Building Codes to...
|
Safety Obligation | Proactive Risk Disclosure Obligation | The yielding type here prevails there |
|
18-9
Public Health and Safety—Building Codes to...
|
Safety Obligation | Safety Withdrawaland Notification Obligation | The yielding type here prevails there |
|
90-5
Failure To Report Information Affecting...
|
Safety Obligation | Confidentiality Obligation | The yielding type here prevails there |
|
96-8
Peer Review - Confidentiality Agreements
|
Safety Obligation | Confidentiality Obligation | The yielding type here prevails there |
|
22-2
Sharing As-Built Drawings
|
Disclosure Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | The prevailing type here yields there |
|
76-4
Public Welfare - Knowledge of Information...
|
Reporting Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | The prevailing type here yields there |
|
89-7
Duty To Report Safety Violations
|
Reporting Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | The prevailing type here yields there |
|
88-6
Whistleblowing - City Engineer
|
Safety Withdrawaland Notification Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | The prevailing type here yields there |
|
82-2
Confidentiality of Engineering Report
|
Confidentiality Obligation | Faithful Agent Obligation | The prevailing type here yields there |
|
24-5
Sustainable Development and Resilient...
|
Faithful Agent Obligation | Professional Accountability Obligation | The prevailing type here also prevails there, over a different duty |
|
93-3
Appropriate Notification And Review Of...
|
Faithful Agent Obligation | Peer Review Cooperation Obligation | The prevailing type here also prevails there, over a different duty |
|
08-10
Public Welfare—Design of Medical Equipment
|
Faithful Agent Obligation | Reporting Obligation | The prevailing type here also prevails there, over a different duty |
|
85-4
Objectivity of Engineer Retained as Expert
|
Faithful Agent Obligation | Objectivity Obligation | The prevailing type here also prevails there, over a different duty |
Closest instance-level matches, ranked on the specific obligations and contexts of this case:
| Case | Obligation that prevailed | Yielding obligation | Context (defeasibleUnder) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
76-4
Public Welfare - Knowledge of Information...
|
Engineer Doe Paramount Public Duty | Engineer Doe Faithful Agent Duty | No Written Report Directive |
|
93-3
Appropriate Notification And Review Of...
|
Engineer B Faithful Agent Duty | Engineer B Peer Notification Duty | Franchiser Nondisclosure Directive |
|
24-5
Sustainable Development and Resilient...
|
Engineer K Faithful Agent Duty | Engineer K Sustainability Promotion Duty | City Officials Public Accountability |
|
08-10
Public Welfare—Design of Medical Equipment
|
Engineer A Faithful Agent Duty | Engineer A Conditional Reporting Duty | Internal Mechanisms Available MedTech |