1. John Woodgate makes an excellent point regarding why didn't the
manufacture
know about the Standard Changes.
2. Does the manufacturer build to the customer's prints and requirements?
If so,
why didn't the customer know about the Standard Changes?
John Shinn
-----Original Message-----
From: John Woodgate
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2013 11:45 AM
To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG
Subject: Re: [PSES] standards update and legal madness
In message
<518cfcd229674efe916347038430c...@blupr02mb116.namprd02.prod.outlook.com>
, dated Fri, 8 Nov 2013, Brian Oconnell <oconne...@tamuracorp.com>
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
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