2021 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 61 - Professional and Occupational Licenses
Article 23 - Engineering and Surveying
Section 61-23-3 - Definitions. (Repealed effective July 1, 2024.)

As used in the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act:

A. "approved" or "approval" means acceptable to the board;

B. "authorized company officer" means an employee of a business entity duly authorized by the business entity to contractually obligate the business entity;

C. "board" means the state board of licensure for professional engineers and professional surveyors;

D. "business entity" means a corporation, professional corporation, limited liability corporation, professional limited liability corporation, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, professional limited liability partnership, a joint stock association or any other form of business, whether or not for profit;

E. "conviction" or "convicted" means a final adjudication of guilt, whether pursuant to a plea of nolo contendere or otherwise and whether or not the sentence is deferred or suspended;

F. "engineer", "professional engineer", "consulting engineer", "licensed engineer" or "registered engineer" means a person who is qualified to practice engineering by reason of the person's intensive preparation and knowledge in the use of mathematics, chemistry, physics and engineering sciences, including the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design acquired by professional education and engineering experience and who is licensed by the board to practice engineering;

G. "engineering accreditation commission" means the engineering accreditation commission of the accreditation board for engineering and technology, incorporated, or any successor commission or organization;

H. "engineering", "practice of engineering" or "engineering practice" means any creative or engineering work that requires engineering education, training and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical and engineering sciences to such creative work as consultation, investigation, forensic investigation, evaluation, planning and design of engineering works and systems, expert technical testimony, engineering studies and the review of construction for the purpose of assuring substantial compliance with drawings and specifications; any of which embrace such creative work, either public or private, in connection with any utilities, structures, buildings, machines, equipment, processes, work systems, projects and industrial or consumer products or equipment of a mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, chemical, pneumatic, 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 work. The "practice of engineering" may include the use of photogrammetric methods to derive topographical and other data. The "practice of engineering" does not include responsibility for the supervision of construction, site conditions, operations, equipment, personnel or the maintenance of safety in the work place;

I. "engineering committee" means a committee of the board entrusted to implement all business of the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act as it pertains to the practice of engineering, including the promulgation and adoption of rules of professional responsibility for professional engineers exclusive to the practice of engineering;

J. "engineer intern" means a person who has qualified for, taken and passed an examination in the fundamental engineering subjects as provided in the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act;

K. "fund" means the professional engineers' and surveyors' fund;

L. "incidental practice" means the performance of other professional services that are related to a licensee's work as an engineer;

M. "person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture or a legal or commercial entity;

N. "professional development" means education by a licensee in order to maintain, improve or expand skills and knowledge obtained prior to initial licensure or to develop new and relevant skills and knowledge to maintain licensure;

O. "responsible charge" means responsibility for the direction, control and supervision of engineering or surveying work, as the case may be, to assure that the work product has been critically examined and evaluated for compliance with appropriate professional standards by a licensee in that profession, and by sealing or signing the documents, the professional engineer or professional surveyor accepts responsibility for the engineering or surveying work, respectively, represented by the documents and that applicable engineering or surveying standards have been met;

P. "surveying", "practice of surveying" or "surveying practice" means any service or work, the substantial performance of which involves the application of the principles of mathematics and the related physical and applied sciences for:

(1) the measuring and locating of lines, angles, elevations and natural and man-made features in the air, on the surface of the earth, within underground workings and on the beds or bodies of water for the purpose of defining location, areas and volumes;

(2) the monumenting of property boundaries and for the platting and layout of lands and subdivisions;

(3) the application of photogrammetric methods used to derive topographic and other data;

(4) the establishment of horizontal and vertical controls that will be the basis for all geospatial data used for future design surveys, including construction staking surveys, surveys to lay out horizontal and vertical alignments, topographic surveys, control surveys for aerial photography for the collection of topographic and planimetric data using photogrammetric methods and construction surveys of engineering and architectural public works projects;

(5) the preparation and perpetuation of maps, records, plats, field notes, easements and property descriptions; and

(6) the depiction and transmittal by paper or digital means of any digital geospatial data for use in geographic information systems or land information systems that purports to be the authoritative location of points or features of a survey regulated by the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act, but excludes data used solely for a cadastre, such as assessment and tax mapping purposes, or general representations of surveyed or historic data used for mapping purposes, such as land parcels and built infrastructure;

Q. "surveying committee" means a committee of the board entrusted to implement all business of the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act as it pertains to the practice of surveying, including the promulgation and adoption of rules of professional responsibility for professional surveyors exclusive to the practice of surveying;

R. "surveyor", "professional surveyor", "licensed surveyor" or "registered surveyor" means a person who is qualified to practice surveying by reason of the person's intensive preparation and knowledge in the use of mathematics, physical and applied sciences and surveying, including the principles and methods of surveying acquired by education and experience, and who is licensed by the board to practice surveying;

S. "surveyor intern" means a person who has qualified for, taken and passed an examination in the fundamentals of surveying subjects as provided in the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act;

T. "surveying work" means the work performed in the practice of surveying; and

U. "supplemental surveying work" means surveying work performed in order to densify, augment and enhance previously performed survey work or site information but excludes the surveying of real property for the establishment of land boundaries, rights of way and easements and the dependent or independent surveys or resurveys of the public land system.

History: Laws 1987, ch. 336, § 3; 1993, ch. 218, § 3; 1999, ch. 259, § 2; 2003, ch. 233, § 2; 2005, ch. 69, § 1; 2012, ch. 46, § 1; 2017, ch. 42, § 2.

Delayed repeals. — For delayed repeal of this section, see 61-23-32 NMSA 1978.

Repeals and reenactments. — Laws 1987, ch. 336 repealed former 61-23-3 NMSA 1978, as enacted by Laws 1933, ch. 130, § 3, relating to violation of reference mark and entry provisions, effective June 19, 1987, and enacted a new section.

The 2017 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, defined "authorized company officer", "business entity" and "engineering accreditation commission", and revised the definition of "engineer" as used in the Engineering and Surveying Practice Act; added a new Subsection B and redesignated former Subsection B as Subsection C; added a new Subsection D and redesignated former Subsections C and D as Subsections E and F, respectively; in Subsection F, after "'engineer'", added "'professional engineer', 'consulting engineer', 'licensed engineer' or 'registered engineer'", and after "engineering experience", added "and who is licensed by the board to practice engineering"; added a new Subsection G and redesignated former Subsections E through K as Subsections H through N, respectively; deleted former Subsection L and redesignated former Subsections M through S as Subsections O through U, respectively; in Subsection P, Paragraph P(5), after "field notes", added "easements" and added Paragraph P(6); in Subsection R, after "'surveyor'", deleted "or", and after "'professional surveyor'", added "'licensed surveyor' or 'registered surveyor'"; and in Subsection U, deleted the last three sentences, which related to supplemental surveying work for the planning and design of an engineering project.

The 2012 amendment, effective July 1, 2012, defined "professional development" as the education to maintain licensure and in Subsection K, after "relevant skills and knowledge", added "to maintain licensure".

The 2005 amendment, effective June 17, 2005, added the promulgation and adoption of rules of professional responsibility for professional engineers as a function of the engineering committee in Subsection F; changed the definition of "surveying" in Subsection N to include the establishment of controls that will be the basis for all geospatial data used for future design surveys; added the promulgation and adoption of rules of professional responsibility for professional surveyors as a function of the surveying committee in subsection, added a definition of "supplemental surveying work" in Subsection S and permitted professional engineers to perform supplemental surveys in certain circumstances.

The 2003 amendment, effective June 20, 2003, inserted Subsection J, and redesignated the remaining subsections accordingly.

The 1999 amendment, effective June 18, 1999, substituted "licensure" for "registration", "licensee" for "registrant", and made similar substitutions throughout the section; added the next-to last sentence in Subsection E; added Subsection H, and redesignated subsequent subsections accordingly; and in the undesignated paragraph at the end of the section, deleted the former last sentence, which read "A registered professional engineer may apply photogrammetric methods to derive topographic and other date", and added the last two sentences.

The 1993 amendment, effective July 1, 1993, rewrote this section to the extent that a detailed comparison is impracticable.