1. (a) The purpose of the engineer's seal is to assure the user of the engineering product that the work has been performed or directly supervised by the professional engineer named and to delineate the scope of the engineer's work.
2. (b) License holders shall only seal work done by them, performed under their direct supervision as defined in §131.81 of this title, relating to Definitions, or shall be standards or general guideline specifications that they have reviewed and selected. Upon sealing, engineers take full professional responsibility for that work.

3. (c) When a license holder reviews and elects to use standards or general guideline specifications, those items shall be clearly labeled as such, shall bear the identity of the publishing entity, and shall be:

   1. (1) individually sealed by the license holder; or
   2. (2) specified on an integral design/title/contents sheet that bears the engineer's seal, signature, and date with a statement authorizing its use.
4. (d) License holders shall take reasonable steps to ensure the security of their physical or computer-generated seals at all times. In the event of loss of a seal, the engineer will immediately give written notification of the facts concerning the loss to board.
5. (e) Preliminary documents released from a license holder's control shall identify the purpose of the document, the engineer(s) of record and the engineer license number(s), and the release date by placing the following text or similar wording instead of a seal: "This document is released for the purpose of (Examples: interim review, mark-up, drafting) under the authority of (Example: Leslie H. Doe, P.E. 0112) on (date). It is not to be used for (Examples: construction, bidding, permit) purposes."
6. (f) License holders shall affix an unobscured seal and original signature with date or electronic signature as prescribed in §137.35 of this chapter to the originals of all documents containing the final version of any engineering work before such work is released from their control, including the original title sheet of bound engineering reports, specifications, details, calculations or estimates, and each original sheet of plans or drawings regardless of size or binding. All other engineering work, including but not limited to research reports, opinions, recommendations, evaluations, addenda, documents produced for litigation, and engineering software shall bear the engineer's printed name, date, signature and the designation "P.E." or other terms as described in §137.1 of this chapter (relating to License Holder Designations). A seal may be added on such work if required or at the engineer's discretion. Electronic correspondence of this type shall be followed by a hard copy containing the engineer's printed name, date, signature and the designation "P.E." or other terms as described in §137.1 of this chapter (relating to License Holder Designations).
7. (g) Work performed by more than one license holder shall be sealed in a manner such that all engineering can be clearly attributed to the responsible license holder or license holders. When sealing plans or documents on which two or more license holders have worked, the seal and signature of each license holder shall be placed on the plan or document with a notation describing the work done under each license holder's responsible charge.
8. (h) Licensed employees of the state, its political subdivisions, or other public entities are responsible for sealing their original engineering work; however, such licensed employees engaged in review and evaluation for compliance with applicable law or regulation of engineering work submitted by others, or in the preparation of general planning documents, a proposal for decision in a contested case or any similar position statement resulting from a compliance review, need not seal the review reports, planning documents, proposals for decision, or position statements.

9. (i) A license holder, as a third party, may alter, complete, correct, revise, or add to the work of another license holder when engaged to do so by a client, provided:

   1. (1) the client furnishes the documentation of such work submitted to the client by the first license holder;
   2. (2) the first license holder is notified in writing by the second license holder of the engagement immediately upon acceptance of the engagement; and
   3. (3) any work altered, completed, corrected, revised, or added to shall have a seal affixed by the second license holder. The second license holder then becomes responsible for any alterations, additions or deletions to the original design including any effect or impact of those changes on the original license holder's design.
10. (j) A local authority may require an original seal and/or signature on reproduced documents.
11. (k) A plan, specification, plat, or report issued by a license holder for a project to be constructed or used in this state must include the license holder's seal placed on the document. A license holder is not required to use a seal if the project is to be constructed or used in another state or country.

Source Note:The provisions of this §137.33 adopted to be effective May 20, 2004, 29 TexReg 4878; amended to be effective January 1, 2006, 30 TexReg 8687.