A licensed professional engineer is asked to apply a seal to a structural connection design package prepared by an unlicensed designer employed at a different firm. The engineer did not direct or control the preparation of the design but has since reviewed the calculations and found them technically acceptable. Under the NCEES Model Rules, applying the seal is:
- (A)Permissible, because the calculations were reviewed and found acceptable
- (B)Permissible, provided the originating designer is credited on the drawings
- (C)Permissible, provided the engineer accepts liability for the design in writing
- (D)Not permissible, because the work was not performed under responsible charge
Show worked solution
Answer: (D)
The seal certifies work prepared by the licensee or under the licensee's responsible charge, and after-the-fact review establishes no such direct control.
Sealing is a certification that the documents were prepared by the licensee personally or under the licensee's responsible charge, which requires direct control and personal supervision while the work is being performed.
Review conducted after completion supplies no control over the assumptions, load paths, and detailing decisions already made, so the responsible-charge test fails even though the reviewer is competent in the subject matter.
Attribution on the title block and a written assumption of liability are contractual devices that never create the supervisory relationship the seal represents, leaving the package unsealable by this engineer.
FE Reference Handbook — Ethics and Professional Practice: NCEES Model Rules, Rules of Professional Conduct (Responsible Charge and Sealing of Documents)
Why the other choices appear
- (A)Substitutes technical review for responsible charge, treating a competence check as equivalent to supervision of the work.
- (B)Assumes credit to the originating designer cures the defect, but disclosure of authorship does not transfer supervisory control to the sealing licensee.
- (C)Assumes liability may be purchased by contract, whereas the seal attests to how the work was produced, not to who pays for its failure.