The ethics and standard-of-care witness in the negligence trial of two engineering firms connected to the 2015 Flint, Mich., water crisis said in three days of testimony that both firms failed to act to stop or limit the public danger despite having the knowledge and obligation to alert higher government authorities. The witness, Richard Humann, CEO of H2M Architects & Engineers, said that when clients endanger the public a reasonable engineer must clearly advise the client of the danger and “further advise some regulating authority.” And that didn’t happen in Flint, he said.
“You need to bring attention” to the danger even if the client ignores proper steps outlined in an engineer’s report, Humann told the 10-member jury in federal court in Ann Arbor, Mich.