Bill Text: MS SB2496 | 2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Practice of surveying; exclude certain activities from the definition of.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2019-02-14 - Died On Calendar [SB2496 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2019-SB2496-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2019 Regular Session
To: Business and Financial Institutions
By: Senator(s) Hill
Senate Bill 2496
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 73-13-71, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO EXCLUDE CERTAIN ACTIVITIES FROM THE DEFINITION OF THE PRACTICE OF SURVEYING; TO AMEND SECTION 73-13-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM TO THE PRECEDING SECTION; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 73-13-71, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-13-71. As used in Sections 73-13-71 through 73-13-105, the following terms shall have the following meanings, unless a different meaning clearly appears from the context:
( * * *a) * * * "Board * * *" * * * means the Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers
and Surveyors as provided for in Section 73-13-5 * * *.
( * * *b) * * * "Professional surveyor * * *" * * * means a person who engages in the practice of surveying * * *, whether in an
individual capacity, or in behalf of or as an employee of any state, county or
municipal authority of the State of Mississippi.
( * * *c) * * * "Surveyor intern * * *" * * * means a candidate for licensure as a professional
surveyor who has successfully passed the fundamentals of land surveying
examination, has met the requirements of the board for enrollment, has received
from the board a certificate stating that he has successfully passed this
portion of the professional land surveying examinations and has been enrolled
as a surveyor intern.
( * * *d) (i) The practice of
"surveying * * *" * * * means providing
professional services such as consultation, investigation, testimony
evaluation, expert technical testimony, planning, mapping, assembling and
interpreting reliable scientific measurement and information relative to the
location, size, shape or physical features of the earth, improvements on the
earth, the space above the earth, or any part of the earth, utilization and
development of these facts and interpretation into an orderly survey map, plan
or report and in particular, the retracement of or the creating of land
boundaries and descriptions of real property.
(ii) The practice of surveying includes, but is not limited to, any one or more of the following:
* * *1. Locating, relocating,
establishing, reestablishing, laying out or retracing any property boundary or
easement.
* * *2. Making any survey for the
subdivision of any tract of land, including rights-of-way and easements.
* * *3. Determining, by the use of
principles of surveying, the position for any survey monument or reference
point; or setting, resetting or replacing any such monument or reference point,
commonly known as control surveys.
* * *4. Creating, preparing or modifying
electronic or computerized data, including land information systems and
geographic information systems, relative to the performance of the activities
in the above-described * * * items 1. through * * * 3.
(iii) The practice of surveying does not include work products that represent only a generalized location of a feature, object or boundary upon which the public would not reasonably rely as the precise location of that feature, object or boundary, or the transcription of previously created data into any presentation format by manual or electronic means, and the maintenance thereof, provided that the data is clearly not intended to indicate the authoritative location of property boundaries, the precise definition of the shape or contour of the earth, or the precise location of fixed works of humans.
SECTION 2. Section 73-13-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
73-13-3. The term "engineer" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a professional engineer as hereinafter defined.
The term "professional engineer" within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a person who has met the qualifications as required under Section 73-13-23(1) and who has been issued a certificate of registration as a professional engineer.
The term "engineer intern" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean a candidate for licensure as a professional engineer who has met the qualifications as required under Section 73-13-23(2) and who has been issued a certificate of enrollment as an engineer intern.
The term "practice of engineering" within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean any service or creative work the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences to such services or creative work as consultation, investigation, expert technical testimony evaluation, planning, design, and design coordination of engineering works and systems, planning the use of land, air and water, performing engineering surveys and studies, and the review of construction for the purpose of monitoring compliance with drawings and specifications; any of which embraces such engineering services or work, either public or private, in connection with any utilities, water resources, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects, communication systems, transportation systems, industrial or consumer products or equipment of control systems; or engineering services or work of a communications, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, geotechnical (including geology and geohydrology incidental to the practice of engineering), geological, environmental, or thermal nature, insofar as they involve safeguarding life, health or property, and including such other professional services as may be necessary to the planning, progress and completion of any engineering services.
Design coordination includes the review and coordination of those technical submissions prepared by others, including as appropriate and without limitation, consulting engineers, surveyors, architects, landscape architects and other professionals working under direction of the engineer.
The term "firm," as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45, shall mean a business entity that offers the professional engineering or surveying services to the public of its licensed personnel who are either employees, officers, directors, partners, members or managers. A business entity may be formed as either:
(a) A professional service corporation;
(b) A corporation;
(c) A partnership, including limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships; or
(d) A limited liability company.
Prior to any contract for or the provision of professional engineering or surveying services in this jurisdiction, a firm shall obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105 of this chapter. A sole proprietorship, owned and operated by a licensee under this chapter is not required to obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105. A professional association of licensed professional engineers or professional surveyors is not required to obtain a certificate of authority under Section 73-13-43 or Section 73-13-105. Both the licensed sole proprietor and the licensees within a professional association shall maintain their individual licenses in active status and only offer the professional services for which they are licensed and qualified to provide.
Engineering surveys include
all survey activities required to support the sound conception, planning,
design, construction, maintenance and operation of engineered projects but
exclude the practice of surveying as defined in Section 73-13-71 * * *.
A person or firm shall be construed to practice or offer to practice engineering within the meaning and intent of Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45, who practices any branch of the profession of engineering; or provides, by verbal claim, sign, advertisement, letterhead, card, or in any other way represents himself to be a professional engineer, or through the use of some other title implies that he is a professional engineer; or who holds himself out as able to perform or provide, or who does perform any engineering service or work or any other professional service designated by the practitioner or recognized by educational authorities as engineering.
The term "board" as used in Sections 73-13-1 through 73-13-45 shall mean the Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors provided for by said sections.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2019.
