Topaz v. Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Surveying

297 P.3d 498, 255 Or. App. 138, 2013 WL 458277, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 143
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedFebruary 6, 2013
Docket1001928; A148844
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 297 P.3d 498 (Topaz v. Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Surveying) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Topaz v. Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering & Land Surveying, 297 P.3d 498, 255 Or. App. 138, 2013 WL 458277, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 143 (Or. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

NAKAMOTO, J.

Petitioner seeks judicial review of a final order of the Oregon Board of Examiners for Engineering and Land Surveying (board) imposing a $350 civil penalty for engaging in the practice of engineering without an Oregon license in violation of ORS 672.007(1) and ORS 672.045(2).1 On review, petitioner challenges the board’s conclusion that he practiced engineering without a license by signing a complaint letter to the board with the designation “RE.,” which is an abbreviation for “professional engineer,” after his name. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

We take the facts from the board’s order supplemented by the undisputed facts in the record. Petitioner has a mechanical engineering degree and technical training in electrical engineering, but he has never registered as a professional engineer in Oregon. He was actively licensed as a professional engineer in Maryland from 1961 through 1986. He was not licensed in Maryland, or in any other state, from 1986 until September 2010, when his Maryland license was reinstated.

In June 2009, petitioner sent a letter of complaint to the board, alleging that the engineering department for the City of St. Helens, the city he lives in, caused water damage to his home because of the city’s sanitary sewer rehabilitation project. He signed the letter with his name, followed by the designation P.E., which stands for “professional engineer.” He was not licensed as a professional engineer in Oregon or in any other state when he sent the letter of complaint, to the board. In the letter, petitioner described at length, and in vivid detail, the drainage problem that the city had created and explained that the city was not providing an alternate removal system for the storm water or sump pump drainage. He included with his letter, a detailed statistical analysis of the problem and maps of his and surrounding properties. He concluded the letter by proposing two possible remedies to prevent flooding on his property.

[141]*141Following receipt of the letter, the board issued a Notice of Intent to Assess Civil Penalty and proposed a $1,000 civil penalty. The board alleged that petitioner’s act of signing the complaint letter with the designation P.E. constituted the practice of engineering, in violation of ORS 672.007(l)(a) and (c) and ORS 672.045(2) — statutes defining and prohibiting falsely representing the authority to practice engineering. In part, ORS 672.045(2) prohibits a person from “[f] alsely represent [ing], by any means, that the person is authorized to practice engineering or land surveying.” “Practicing engineering” is defined in ORS 672.007(1), which provides in part:

“[A] person shall be considered practicing or offering to practice engineering who:
“(a) By verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card or in any other way implies that the person is or purports to be a registered professional engineer;
“(c) Purports to be able to perform, or who does perform, any service or work that is defined by ORS 672.005[2] as the practice of engineering.”

In other words, the board alleged that petitioner, without an Oregon engineering license, implied that he was a registered engineer or purported to be able to practice engineering.

Petitioner sent an answer to the notice, in which he contended that he was a professional engineer licensed in Maryland and that his letter did not violate ORS 672.007 or ORS 572.045. He also stated that he sent the letter “in hopes that it might be easier to receive a response with [142]*142some action from [the board] if they determined that he had some professional training and knowledge relating to the issues in question.”

Petitioner requested a hearing and the case was assigned to an administrative law judge (ALJ). Both petitioner and the board filed motions for summary determination. Petitioner argued, among other things, that even if his conduct violated ORS 672.007 and ORS 672.045, his actions fell within the exceptions under ORS 672.060(5), which allows a person to practice engineering if it only affects that person’s property, and ORS 672.060(6), which allows a person to practice engineering incidental to his or her personal work and if not offered directly to the public.

In response to the board’s motion for summary determination, petitioner argued, among other things, that other states have changed their policy regarding P.E. designations. Specifically, he identified the Texas Board of Engineers, which “recognized that such prohibitions raised first amendment and commercial speech issues.” He attached to his response an advisory opinion from the Texas Board of Engineers that stated that it had decided to amend its own rule because “there are first amendment legal arguments based on ‘commercial speech’ that exist.” Neither the advisory opinion nor petitioner cited any legal authority to explain what those issues were.

The ALJ issued an order dismissing the notice and concluded that petitioner did not violate any statutes. In doing so, the ALJ reasoned that petitioner had appended P.E. to his name in error and out of force of habit after several decades of being an engineer in Maryland. The ALJ also reasoned that the error caused no harm and, because petitioner was an engineer by education, he was holding himself out as a registered professional engineer in some other jurisdiction besides Oregon. Even if petitioner was practicing engineering, the ALJ concluded, his actions fell within the exception in ORS 672.060(5) because his conduct affected his own property. The ALJ’s order did not address the exemption under ORS 672.060(6) allowing engineering work that is not offered directly to the public.

[143]*143The board issued an amended proposed order that concluded that petitioner had violated ORS 672.007

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
297 P.3d 498, 255 Or. App. 138, 2013 WL 458277, 2013 Ore. App. LEXIS 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/topaz-v-oregon-board-of-examiners-for-engineering-land-surveying-orctapp-2013.