A federal judge in Michigan declined on Feb. 7 to accept the contention of engineer Lockwood, Andrews and Newnam Inc. that claims against it for professional negligence in its advisory role to Flint, Mich. ahead of the city's drinking water crisis should not go to trial. The civil case, set for trial on Feb. 15, was brought on behalf of four children who say they suffered neurocognitive harm from exposure to lead in the water supply.

U.S. District Court Judge Judith E. Levy partly denied the firm’s motion for summary judgment—saying LAN may be liable for failing to warn city officials about a plan lacking orthophosphates for corrosion control in the water after March 2014, but she also agreed with the firm that plaintiffs in the case had failed to show evidence that it could have intervened before that date.

LAN及其母公司Leo A Daly以及工程公司Veolia North America被指控在此案中犯了专业过失。上个月，Levy发表了针对维奥利亚的类似意见，允许在2015年2月之后继续索赔潜在的责任。

in another opinion issued Feb. 9, Levy and Genesee County Circuit Court Judge Joseph J. Farah partly denied a motion for summary judgment from Daly, which had argued that it should not be held responsible separately from LAN for its subsidiary’s actions and that it was not responsible for the actions of the engineers who worked on the Flint project. The judges found that, because of Daly’s corporate structure, all of LAN’s engineers are actually Daly employees and the parent company may be vicariously liable for their actions.

代表LAN的律师韦恩·B·梅森（Wayne B. Mason）在一份声明中说，法院的意见应“涉及任何在密歇根州执行工作的设计专业公司”。他补充说：“这项裁决并没有根据长期的护理标准来判断工程专业人士，而是可能使工程公司暴露于从未在长期行业标准下考虑过的敞口。”

Flint hired LAN in 2013 to provide engineering services for its water treatment plant related to a plan to switch its city water source from Lake Huron via the Detroit Water and Sewage Dept. to the Flint River. According to court documents, LAN recommended a lime and ash softening solution to deal with the river water’s more corrosive nature.

理查德•Humann工程师作证as an expert for the plaintiffs, said that plan would not have been sufficient, and that LAN should have warned city officials that the water would be unsafe without adding the orthophosphate corrosion inhibitor.

兰说，弗林特的饮用水没有铅，这就是为什么它没有提供任何警告的原因。The firm also argued that it could not have been responsible for recommending orthophosphates because it was not hired to perform corrosion control services, and did not learn that the city was not using them until August 2015. Flint’s water supply was reconnected to city water department in October 2015.

Humann testified that any engineer aware of the problems with discoloration and smell in Flint’s water following the switch should have known that corrosion was a significant problem and that the city was not using needed corrosion controls.

Mason said LAN is looking forward to presenting its case to a jury.

“我们有信心一旦陪审团听到了所有证据，他们将看到LAN永远不会对与弗林特河的变化有关的水质问题负责，而弗林特的水问题的原因完全是由政府失败。”他说。