Dear Scott:
The product gets through, not based on your personal
representation, but rather on the company's representation. Because
companies are made up of living, breathing human beings, a company's
representation always takes the form the signature of a living,
breathing human being.
In most liability cases, the lawyer and the court will look
only as far as the company to assign liability. They may want to
find the original signatory as a evidence witness, but again, the
paper trail left at the company is usually adequate to figure out
what happened.
Take your hypothetical - the original signer isn't on the
hook under these facts. Maybe the manufacturing manager is, and
certainly, the company is.
If, on the other hand, the original signer lied about
conformity (e.g. he or she knew the product was unsafe, and lied to
the company and to the world about it) you can bet that the company
would come looking to have that signer share some of the
responsibility for past harm and remedial costs.
If the product really is unsafe, who is in the best position
to change the design and effect a recall? The company is - not the
original signer.
On a similar note, I had a question a few months ago
regarding the interpretation of language in the LVD that says the
DofC will have the last two digits of the year in which CE marking
was affixed. Taken literally, this means that new DofC's would be
prepared for signature commencing with the first production of each
new year. But, the practice followed is stated in the Guidelines
for Application of the LVD, and the DofC is expected to have the
last two digits of the year in which CE marking was affixed (for the
first time), so one DofC may span several years of production.
Regards,
Chuck Seyboldt
On Thu, 11 Nov 1999, Scott Douglas wrote:
> I said the DofC should be re-signed for the following reasons:
[ snip ]
> Or think of it this way. You work for my company and you sign the DofC. We
> make, test and ship hundreds of the product. All our procedures are
> compliant, etc. Then you leave my company and we keep shipping product with
> a DofC with your signature. One day, the person running the hipot tester at
> the end of the production line quits and, as a cost savings measure, the
> manufacturing manager decides to not replace the person. No more hipot
> testing and nobody told me about that. But the product still gets through
> customs in the EU because of your signature on the DofC. Somebody gets
> electrocuted by a defective product. When the lawyers go looking for the
> person that signed the DofC, I will tell them where to find you. After all,
> you signed the form and said the product was compliant, right?
[ major snip ]
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