Guam § 32116 - Certificates — Seals.

§ 32116. Certificates — Seals.

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CH. 32 PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS, ARCHITECTS AND LAND SURVEYORS

(a) The Board shall issue to each applicant meeting the requirements of

this Chapter a certificate of registration which gives the registrant proper

authority to practice his profession on Guam. The certificate of registration

for a professional engineer shall carry the designation “PROFESSIONAL

ENGINEER”, and shall also designate the branch in which he is authorized

to practice. The certificate of registration for an architect shall carry the

designation “REGISTERED ARCHITECT”, and the certificate of

registration for a Landscape Architect shall carry the designation

“REGISTERED LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT”, and the certificate of

registration for a land surveyor shall carry the designation

“PROFESSIONAL LAND SURVEYOR”. It shall give the full name of the

registrant with his registration number and shall be signed by the Chairman,

the Secretary/Treasurer and the Executive Board Administrator under the

seal of the Board.

A properly entitled and endorsed identification card shall be issued with

the certificate of registration and reissued thereafter, as prescribed by §

32117 of this Chapter, to each registrant upon payment of the renewal fee.

Every registered engineer, architect, landscape architect or land

surveyor having a place of business or employment within this jurisdiction

shall display his certificate of registration in a conspicuous place in such

place of business or employment.

(b) The issuance of a certificate of registration by the Board shall be

prima facie evidence that the person named therein is entitled to all the

rights, privileges, and responsibilities of an engineer, architect, landscape

architect or land surveyor while the said certificate remains unrevoked or

unexpired.

(c) The Board shall issue to each applicant meeting the requirements

of this Chapter a certificate of “engineer intern” or “land surveyor intern”, as

applicable. The certificate issued to the “engineer intern” or “land surveyor

intern” does not authorize the practice of engineering or land surveying, and

only indicates that his name has been recorded by the Board as having

passed the required examination.

(d) Each registrant hereunder shall, upon registration licensure, have a

seal of a design authorized by the Board, bearing the registrant’s name,

registration number, and the designation, “Professional Engineer”,

“Registered Architect”, “Registered Landscape Architect”, or “Professional

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Land Surveyor”. For Professional Engineers, the stamp or seal shall contain

the specific discipline for which he is authorized, the expiration date of the

registrant, or a space within which the expiration date must be written:

(1) The seal shall be an image, imprint or other medium

approved by the Board. Except for progress submittals, whenever the

seal is applied to a final work product, the registrant’s written signature,

and date shall be signed adjacent to the seal with the statement “This

work was prepared by me or under my responsible control”. If the

work product is not intended for construction, a statement to that effect

shall be placed on the document adjacent to the seal. A facsimile

signature will not be acceptable. Computer- generated signatures and

dates are not acceptable.

(2) Seals must be a permanent mark on the document being

sealed. The standard seal must be used on all original tracings,

blueprints, drawings, specifications, reports, and other documents

prepared by professional engineers, registered architects, registered

landscape architects or professional land surveyors.

(3) The seal and dated signature shall be placed on all technical

submissions, such as specifications, reports, plats, drawings, plans,

design information and calculations, whenever presented to a client or

any public or government agency, including government in-house

designs.

(4) The seal and dated signature shall be placed on all original

copies, tracings or other reproducible documents in such a manner that

the seal and signature will be reproduced. The application of the

registrant’s licensee seal and signature shall constitute certification that

the work thereon was done by him or under his responsible control. In

the case of multiple sealings, the first or title page shall be sealed and

signed by all involved. In addition, each sheet shall be sealed and

signed by the registrant or registrants responsible for each sheet. In the

case of an authorized firm, partnership or corporation, each sheet shall

be sealed and signed by the registrants involved. The Responsible

Managing Employee (RME) in charge of operations within the

jurisdiction shall sign, seal, and date the title or the first sheet.

(5) The seal and signature and date shall be used by registrants

only when the work being stamped was under the registrant’s complete

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direction and responsible control, provided, that if the work was

performed at an office outside of the locale in which the registrant

permanently resides, then the seal may be used only if the registrant

supervised the work on a full-time basis.

(6) In the case of temporary permit issued to a registrant licensee

of another state or jurisdiction, the registrant shall use his state of

registration seal and shall affix his signature and temporary permit

number and date of issue to all his work.

(7) It shall be unlawful for a registrant to affix or permit his seal

and signature, or facsimile thereof, to be affixed to any document as

above described after the expiration of a certificate, or for the purpose

of aiding or abetting any attempt to evade any provision of this Chapter.

(8) Seals of Professional Engineers on Engineering Documents:

(A) The seal of a professional engineer shall be placed on

each drawing, specification, plan, report or other document which

is in its final form and which involves the practice of engineering

as defined in this Chapter. A separate seal of a professional

engineer of the appropriate branch of engineering, as such

branches are designated on the various forms of professional

engineer registration certificates, and is required for each portion

of such document that involves a separate branch of engineering,

except as provided in sub-item (B) of this item (8). For example,

except as provided in sub-item (B) of this item (8), so long as

registration certificates classify “civil engineering”, “structural

engineering”, “mechanical engineering” and “electrical

engineering” as different branches of engineering, the seal of a

professional engineer of the civil branch shall be required for each

portion of an engineering document involving civil work; the seal

of a professional engineer of the structural branch, or civil branch,

shall be required for each portion of an engineering document

involving structural work for any structure or building three (3)

stories or less in height; wherein the height of the stories shall be

defined as not more than twelve (12) feet, the seal of a

professional engineer of the structural branch shall be required for

each portion of an engineering document involving structural

work for any structure or building higher than three (3) stories; the

seal of a professional engineer of the mechanical branch shall be

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required for each portion of an engineering document involving

mechanical work; and the seal of a professional engineer of the

electrical branch shall be required for each portion of an

engineering document involving electrical work.

(B) The requirement of a separate seal for each portion of an

engineering document involving a separate branch of engineering

is subject to the following exceptions:

(i) in the case of a document involving an individual

single family dwelling, two (2) family dwellings, or two (2)

family dwellings in a subdivision, the seal of a professional

engineer in the civil branch or the seal of an architect, shall

be sufficient;

(ii) in the case of a document involving work incidental

to the practice of engineering, the seal of any professional

engineer, regardless of his branch of engineering, or the seal

of an architect, shall be sufficient.

(iii) the seal of a professional engineer of the

mechanical branch is sufficient for documents involving

plumbing work, air-conditioning and ventilation, regardless

of the height of a building;

(iv) in the case of document involving the design of a

fire sprinkler system, a seal of a professional engineer in the

fire protection branch shall be required.

(v) in the case of a document involving the structural

portion of a site adaptation of a pre-engineered structure or

building, the seal of a professional engineer of either the civil

branch or the structural branch is sufficient; and

(vi) in the case of a document involving work for which

more than one (1) branch of engineering is qualified, other

than those types of work provided for in sub-items (i), (ii),

(iii), (iv), and (v) of this item (8), the Board shall promulgate

general guidelines for the sealing of such a document. The

guidelines shall reflect that there are often broad overlaps

between the authorized practices of the various branches of

engineering.

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(9) Seals of Architects.

(A) All technical submissions, such as, drawings,

specifications, plans, reports or other documents, prepared by a

registered architect or under his responsible control shall bear his

seal, which shall mean that the architect was in responsible control

over the content of such technical submissions during their

preparation, and has applied the required professional standard of

care. An architect may sign and seal technical submissions, only if

the technical submissions were:

(i) prepared by the architect, or;

(ii) prepared by persons under the architect’s responsible

control.

(B) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-item (A) of this

item (9), in the case of a document involving an individual single

family dwelling, a seal of either an architect or a professional

engineer of the civil engineering branch shall be sufficient.

Documents involving two (2) family dwellings, or a subdivision

development with single family and two (2) family dwellings, the

seal of a professional engineer of the civil engineering branch is

sufficient.

(C) The requirement contained in sub-item (A) of this item

(9) does not affect the need for a seal of a professional engineer of

the appropriate branch of engineering for each portion of a

document that involves a system of a separate branch of

engineering.

(10) Seals of Professional Land Surveyors:

(A) The seal of a Land Surveyor shall be placed on each

drawing, plan, property metes and bounds descriptions,

computation sheets, reports and other documents in their final

form, which involve the practice of land surveying, to wit:

(i) any office offering to perform land surveys must

have a licensed professional land surveyor in charge of the

operations, be available on a full time basis with a 75%

physical presence, and must have full control of the survey

operation;

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(ii) to further insure that field conditions of survey

documents are in full conformance with such survey, the

surveyor of record is required to establish a field reference

point from which building corners, setbacks and other

pertinent points may be derived if and when improvements

are contemplated on a property. This reference point must

remain in place and be protected from damage for the

duration of the construction of a project. Such reference

point must be indicated as referenced on the site plan of the

project. It will be the surveyor’s responsibility to follow

setbacks defined in the Zoning Law, as may be required for

building permit purposes; and

(ii) all documents prepared and certified by a

professional land surveyor shall be stamped with a statement

under the seal stating: “I hereby certify that this map was

prepared by me or under my direct supervision, that it is

based on a field survey made in (insert date), in accordance

with all applicable laws and regulations, and that I am

responsible for the accuracy of all data and information

shown hereon. I also certify that all the monuments are of

the character and occupy the positions indicated in this map”.

(11) With respect to work incidental to the practice of engineering

and work incidental to the practice of architecture, the Board shall

promulgate general guidelines, which shall include examples of

incidental work, and which shall set limitations on the permissible

extent of such incidental work. Such guidelines shall be consistent

with items (8) and (9) of this Subsection (d), including the requirements

in those items for separate seals per branch of engineering and for the

seal of an architect, in the case of a building which has as its principal

purpose human occupancy or habitation.

(12) An Engineer, Architect, Landscape Architect and Land

Surveyor shall provide construction contract administration when

applications are made for building or construction permits involving the

public safety and health. The term “construction contract

administration” means making periodic visits to the site by a registered

engineer, architect, landscape architect or land surveyor, or authorized

representatives as the case may require, to observe the progress and

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quality of the executed work and to determine, in general, if the work is

proceeding in accordance with the contract documents. It is not

required that they make exhaustive or continuous on-site inspections to

check the quality or quantity of the work, nor is it intended that the

engineer, architect, landscape architect and land surveyor be

responsible for construction means, methods, techniques, sequences or

procedures, or for safety precautions and programs in connection with

the work.

(13) Building Official: The Building Official charged with the

responsibility of issuing building permits, must be in possession of a

signed/sealed set of plans and specifications.