Bill Text: MS HB1329 | 2012 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Engineers; clarify ability to be an expert witness.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2012-03-15 - Died On Calendar [HB1329 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2012-HB1329-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2012 Regular Session
To: Judiciary A
By: Representative Huddleston (15th)
House Bill 1329
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTIONS 73-13-3 AND 73-13-41, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CLARIFY REQUIREMENTS FOR AN ENGINEER TO BE AN EXPERT WITNESS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 73-13-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-13-3. The term "engineer" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a professional engineer as hereinafter defined.
The term "professional engineer" within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a person who has met the qualifications as required under Section 73-13-23(1) and who has been issued a certificate of registration as a professional engineer.
The term "engineer intern" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a candidate for licensure as a professional engineer who has met the qualifications as required under Section 73-13-23(2) and who has been issued a certificate of enrollment as an engineer intern.
The term "practice of engineering" within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean any service or creative work the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such services or creative work as consultation, investigation, * * * evaluation, planning, design, and design coordination of engineering works and systems, planning the use of land, air and water, performing engineering surveys and studies, and the review of construction for the purpose of monitoring compliance with drawings and specifications; any of which embraces such engineering services or work, either public or private, in connection with any utilities, water resources, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects, communication systems, transportation systems, industrial or consumer products or equipment of control systems; or engineering services or work of a communications, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, geotechnical (including geology and geohydrology incidental to the practice of engineering), geological, environmental, or thermal nature, insofar as they involve safeguarding life, health or property, and including such other professional services as may be necessary to the planning, progress and completion of any engineering services.
Design coordination includes the review and coordination of those technical submissions prepared by others, including as appropriate and without limitation, consulting engineers, surveyors, architects, landscape architects and other professionals working under direction of the engineer.
The term "firm," as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45, shall mean a business entity that offers the professional engineering or surveying services to the public of its licensed personnel who are either employees, officers, directors, partners, members or managers. A business entity may be formed as either:
(a) A professional service corporation;
(b) A corporation;
(c) A partnership, including limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships; or
(d) A limited liability company.
Prior to any contract for or the provision of professional engineering or surveying services in this jurisdiction, a firm shall obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105 of this chapter. A sole proprietorship, owned and operated by a licensee under this chapter is not required to obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105. A professional association of licensed professional engineers or professional surveyors is not required to obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105. Both the licensed sole proprietor and the licensees within a professional association shall maintain their individual licenses in active status and only offer the professional services for which they are licensed and qualified to provide.
Engineering surveys include all survey activities required to support the sound conception, planning, design, construction, maintenance and operation of engineered projects but exclude the practice of surveying as defined in Section 73-13-71(d).
A person or firm shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45, who practices any branch of the profession of engineering; or provides, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself to be a professional engineer, or through the use of some other title implies that he is a professional engineer; or who holds himself out as able to perform or provide, or who does perform any engineering service or work or any other professional service designated by the practitioner or recognized by educational authorities as engineering.
The term "board" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean the Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors provided for by said sections.
SECTION 2. Section 73-13-41, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-13-41. (1) Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall not be construed to prevent or to affect:
(a) The practice of any other legally recognized profession or trade, such as: (i) engineers employed by contractors to supervise work on which a licensed engineer is engaged; (ii) architects who are registered under the provisions of Chapter 1 of this title; and (iii) the practice of geology as regulated pursuant to Title 73, Chapter 63;
(b) The work of an employee or a subordinate of a person holding a certificate of licensure under Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45, provided such work does not include final designs or decisions and is done under the responsibility, checking and supervision of a person holding a certificate of licensure under Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45;
(c) The practice of officers and employees of the government of the United States while engaged within this state in the practice of engineering for said government;
(d) The performance of engineering services by any regular full-time employee of a manufacturing, research and development, railroad or other industrial corporation, provided:
(i) Such services are rendered on or in connection with existing fixed works, equipment, systems, processes or facilities owned, operated, or leased by such corporation and/or its affiliates;
(ii) Such services are not rendered to third parties;
(iii) Such services do not consist of original plant design, original system design, or original process design, other than routine system extensions that do not compromise the integrity of the original design;
(iv) Such services comply with all requirements specified by the employee's company or corporation;
(v) All fixed works, equipment, systems, processes or facilities modified by such services undergo a safety review that confirms: (A) the construction and equipment is in accordance with design specifications; and (B) safety, operating, maintenance and emergency procedures are in place to safeguard life, health and property;
(vi) Such services are not required to be performed, approved or certified by a professional engineer pursuant to law or regulation, whether federal, state or local, other than Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 hereof or any applicable rules or regulations promulgated by the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors;
It is further stated that this subsection (d) is intended to codify the policy and practices of the board on July 1, 1999, and that any ambiguities in this subsection should be construed in accordance with this intent;
(e) The performance of engineering services with respect to utility facilities by any public utility subject to regulation by the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries; or by the officers and regular full-time employees of any such public utility, including its parents, affiliates or subsidiaries, provided that they are engaged solely and exclusively in performing service for such public utility and/or its parents, affiliates or subsidiaries, and as long as such services comply with all standard operating procedures and requirements specified by the employee's company or corporation. This exemption shall not extend to: (i) the practice of engineering performed by public utilities or their officers or employees when such services are rendered to nonaffiliated third parties in exchange for compensation other than that received from their employer, or the use of any name, title or words which tend to convey the impression that a nonregistrant is offering engineering services to the public; and (ii) services which are required to be performed, approved or certified by a professional engineer pursuant to law or regulation whether federal, state or local, other than Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 hereof or any applicable rules or regulations promulgated by the Mississippi Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors;
It is further stated that this subsection (e) is intended to codify the policy and practices of the board on July 1, 1999, and that any ambiguities in this subsection should be construed in accordance with this intent; * * *
(f) The practice of engineering shall not include the work ordinarily performed by persons who operate or maintain machinery, equipment, water plants, power generation, utility transmission, utility distribution facilities, sewage plants and solid waste disposal facilities; or
(g) Activities conducted during the course of, or in anticipation of, litigation including, but not exclusively: analyzing, evaluating, consulting, reconstructing, testing, responding to the opinions and testing conducted by others and offering expert testimony. However, this exemption shall not apply in legal proceedings where the subject matter of the litigation or claim is nonforensic engineering activity legally required to be performed under a Mississippi engineer's license.
(2) In addition to the exemptions provided in subsection (1), there is hereby granted and reserved to the board the authority to exempt from Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 by regulation specific engineering tasks or functions performed by regular full-time employees of manufacturing, public utility, research and development, railroad or other industrial corporations rendered in the course and scope of their employment, on a case by case basis, if, in the opinion of the board, the public health and welfare is not endangered nor the engineering profession diminished.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2012.
