In message
<518cfcd229674efe916347038430c...@blupr02mb116.namprd02.prod.outlook.com>
, dated Fri, 8 Nov 2013, Brian Oconnell <[email protected]>
writes:
A company makes a component for North American market designed for the
needs of a single customer. The company received notices from CSA and
UL with tabulation of standards corrections. The company informed
affected customer of time and cost to update.
H'mmm. Why didn't the manufacturer know about the changes to the
standards? Or is it a case of a running product that now needs to
conform to updated, **improved** standards? That's how the real world
works, not how the inhabitants of Planet Legal might like it to work.
The company then receives letter from the customer's legal dweebs -
they want to see complete list of organizations and individuals that
"contributed to the errors" that caused a mandatory update to the
standard.
I'd be inclined to say that the culprits, if there are any, are UL and
CSA and their managers! Standards committee members offer their work for
approval at several stages in the organizations before the work is
published.
There is a big and vulnerable assumption that 'errors' are involved, but
a defence based on 'state of the art' can be problematical because the
legal people who have to present the case, however intelligent, cannot
possibly absorb all the background that is involved in determining
'state of the art'. For example, what has been done once, or even a
hundred times, in a university laboratory isn't state of the art in the
real world. It's only state of the art if you can buy it or manufacture
it.
The company's customer is considering pursuing a tort for lost
opportunity and professional incompetence. Has this ever been done? Has
a member of a TC/WG ever been served with a subpoena for this stuff? Is
this stupid or just insane?
It is beside the point but in Britain the British Standards Institution
has legal protection against such an action.
--
OOO - Own Opinions Only. With best wishes. See www.jmwa.demon.co.uk
Nondum ex silvis sumus
John Woodgate, J M Woodgate and Associates, Rayleigh, Essex UK
-
----------------------------------------------------------------
This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion
list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]>
All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at:
http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html
Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at
http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used
formats), large files, etc.
Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/
Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe)
List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html
For help, send mail to the list administrators:
Scott Douglas <[email protected]>
Mike Cantwell <[email protected]>
For policy questions, send mail to:
Jim Bacher: <[email protected]>
David Heald: <[email protected]>
