ENGINEERING LAW

BUL 506
MEANING AND DEFINITION OF LAW

• There is no specific and generally

acceptable definition of law. Each
legal scholar defines law the way
he/they perceived it.
• Law can be defined as rules and
regulations that bind the activities of
individuals and general public in a
particular society or association, the
enforcement of which may be backed
by sanction.
 WHAT IS ENGINEERING
LAW?
• Simply put, Engineering law can be
defined as the rules and regulations
guiding the activities of the
engineers in the discharge of their
duties the breach of which may
warrant sanction(s).
• SOURCES OF ENGINEERING LAW
• This referred to where the
Engineering law can be traceable to.
These are:
• 1. Received English Law comprising:
• A. Common law
• B Equity, and
• C Statute of General Application (SOGA)
• 2. Nigerian Statutes/Legislation
• These are laws passed by the legislative
bodies on engineering activities in
Nigeria. Eg COREN Act, Nigerian 1999
Constitution, etc.
• These laws made up of:
• I . Ordinances: Law passed by the central legislature
before 1st oct. 1954
• Ii. Acts: Law passed by the National Assembly in a
civilian regime
• Iii. Laws: Laws made by the State legislature
• Iv.Decree: law made by the Federal Govt. during
Military regime.
• Vi Edict: Law mde by the State govt. during the
Military era.
• Vii. Bye-laws: Law made by the Local govt. authority.
• 3. Customary law
• Custom is the way of life of any group or group of people or profession.
• It is the rules and regulations of a particular profession/engineering which are regarded as their
traditions but largely unwritten.
• CHARACTERISTICS OF CUSTOMARY LAW
• It is largely unwritten
• It is a mirror of acceptable usage (OWOYIN V. OMOTOSHO)
• It must have been in existence at the time of its application
• It must be repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience.
• It must have been universally acceptable as a guiding tradition.
• It is not static (Dampamg V. Sale Dang Gwom).
• VALIDITY OF CUSTOMARY LAW
• Customary law on engineering must pass the following test before it could be regarded as a valid law:
• It must be repugnant to natural justice (Lewis v Bankole)
• It must not be incompatible with any law for the time being (Adesubokun v. Yinusa) (AOKO V. FAGBEMI)
• It must not be contrary to public policy
• PROOF OF CUSTOMARY LAW
• By calling witnesses
• By tendering document
• By Calling Assessors or chiefs
• 4. JUDICIAL PRECEDENT
• This is a source of engineering law found when the court is called upon
to interpret statutes/legislation. It is referred to as Judge made law or
case law.
• HIERACHY OF COURTS IN NIGERIA
• Supreme court: Its decisions bind all other courts in Nigeria
• Court of Appeal: Next to Supreme court. Its decisions bind all other
courts in Nigeria except the supreme court.
• Federal High Court, National Industrial Court, States High Court, Shariah
Court of Appeal, Customary Court of Appeal, Court Marshal, Code of and
Conduct Tribunal. All these are courts of coordinate jurisdictions. Appeal
from all these courts go to Court of Appeal. Their decisions bind the
courts below.
• Magistrate/District court, Customary court, Upper Area Court, Shariah
Court. They are not court of Records because they do not mention or
appear in the constitution.
 TORTIOUS LIABILITIES OF
ENGINEER
• Tortious liabilities of Engineers’ may be Trespass to person and/or goods.
• TRESPASS TO PERSON
• It may be Assault, Battery and/or False imprisonment.
• ASSAULT
• It is simply put as intentional putting a fear into the mind of another that a battery is about to
be committed against that another.
• Examples are where A intends to slap B, or A points gun at B or A approaching B menacingly.
• BATTERY
• It is the intentional application of force on the body of another. Eg A beats B, or A kisses B
without consent.
• Note that battery may be committed without application of force on the body of another, eg
smoking on a person, or projection of light on a person.
• FALSE IMPRISONMENT
• It means total or absolute or complete restriction of movement of person(s) without lawful
justification. In this case, the resraint must be complete and total otherwise it would not
amount to a false imprisonment. Therefore a partial restraint is a defence. It therefore means
that a person being restrained must not have reasonable means of leaving. (BIRD v. JONES)
The use of Police Authority to arrest or detain a person will constitute false iprisonment where
such officer has no power to do so; AIGORO v ANEBUNWA.
• DFENCES TO TRESPASS TO PERSON
• A. Defence of person or property (Self Defence)
• A reasonable defence of oneself or property or another person will not constitute Assault or battery.
• Note that the defence must be for reasonable defence of attack from another person but not a means of
retaliation after an attack, and that the force must be proportionate to the attack.
• B. Parental or Other Authority.
• Parent or guardian or teacher may chastise or punish or discipline or confine the child or ward without possibly
committing assault or battery or false imprisonment as long as the force or confinement is reasonable. Also a
pilot has power to restrain the movement of any person reasonably suspected to have comitted aviation offence.
• C.Consent
• This is expressed in a maxim “ volenti non fit injuria” meaning consent negate injury. An Engineer who consents
to the interference of his/her person can not complain of trespass to person.
• Not that consent of this nature may be express or implied. It is express where a person voluntarily went to the
Engineering company and trespass thereon. It is implied from the conduct of the victim itself.
• Note that consent obtained by fraud or any of the misrepresentation or vitiating factors would not be reckoned
with.
• D. Lawful Arrest
• Where an arrest was made with lawful justification by the police or any other authority as the case may be.
Arrest may be made with or without warrant. So, court can restrain the movement of person by way of
imprisonment if that person commits imprisonable offence.
• E. Inevitable Accident/ Act of God.
• This is where the trepasser had taken all reasonable cares or measures to prevent the occcurrence of the event
yet the event that caused damage happened. This means that it is beyond the power of the offender to stop the
happening of the trespass on the bedy of another..
STRICT LIAILITY OF AN ENGINEER
OR ENGINEERING COMPANY
• Engineer or company will be strictly liable for his/her tortious act if he whether
intentionally or unintentionally brings something that causes damage to another
person (Ryland v. Fletcher).
• Therefore, if an Engineer brings anything into his land or company knowing fully
that if that escapes it will cause damage to the land/property of another, if that
thing/equipment thus escaped and caused damage, the engineer or his company
would be strictly liable. The application of this principle can be found where an
engineer or company installed a vibrating or heavy equipment that caused damage
to the adjoining neighbour’s property.
• Note that the following elements must be proved:
• That the engineer brought heavy equipment into his land/company;
• That the equipment is likely to cause damage if the vibration escaped;
• That the vibration escaped and caused the damage;
• That the victim did not consent to it.
• DEFENCES
• 1. Consent
• 2. Act of God
• 3. Act of third party.
 LIABILITY OF ENGINEER OR
COMPANY FOR NEGLIGENCE
• Negligence as a tortious liability may be described as a breach of duty to take care of another imposed by law
resulting in damage to the victim/complainant. (DONOGHUE v. STEVENSON) (EYINKE V. SHELL PETROLEUM
DEV. CO NIG. LTD). It an omission to do something which a reasonable man would do or doing something
which a prudent or reasonable man would not do.
• WHAT THE PLAINTIFF MUST PROOF
• 1. That the defendant owes him a duty of care
• 2. That the defendant breached that duty of care
• 3. That there was a damage resulting from the breach.
• See (DONOGHUE Supra)
• DUTY OF CARE
• It is a duty that must be performed to take care of another the failure of which will cause damage to that
another. Eg A driver owes duty of care to the other road users not to cause harm to them; An engineer owes a
duty of care to other co-engineers not to cause harm to them; An engineering company owes her employee
duty of care to provide adequate equipment and safe system of work.
• NEGLIGENCE AND RES IPSA LOQUITOR
• Res ipsa loquitor means “Thing or situation speaks for itself”. It is an express way of proof of negligence. This
is available where the victim of accident may not be able to prove how the accident happened. It is applied to
shift the burden of proof to the defendant. (IFEAGWU V. TAMBASI)
• DEFNCES IN NEGLIGENCE
• Consent
• Contributory negligence
• Act of God
• Inevitable Accident.