Can a company be held accountable for a person's death? Up to now, the
only way a company or business could be held accountable was in civil
court. This is where you will commonly see those huge class action
lawsuits filed against tobacco companies, auto manufacturers or the
pharmaceutical industry for negligent manslaughter. Depending on the
outcome, there can be awards in the millions and sometimes billions
given to plaintiffs.
However, corporate manslaughter applies to charging a criminal
complaint against a corporation for the death of one individual or many
people. Currently, the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide
Act are only on the law books in Great Britain since 2008. This means
that any charges of Corporate Manslaughter can only be brought when the
victim is a British citizen.
Basis of law
The basis of this law is that corporations have a legal obligation to
conduct their business or industry with concern for the health and
safety of individuals. This includes any employees or non-employees who
come in contact with the actions of that corporation.
How can the Corporate Manslaughter law be applied? Supposed the Acme
Widgets Company needs to get out an order and demands that their work
staff put in double shifts without proper breaks. What if a forklift
operator falls asleep at the wheel and crashing into a shelve full of
widgets killing him? Would this be the fault of the forklift operator
or the corporation who demanded that he work without a break? Under the
guidelines set forth in the United Kingdom Corporate Manslaughter law,
the corporation can be charge with manslaughter.
In another example, what if the Acme Diary Company didn't properly
repair its refrigeration units? As a result, some of their milk was
spoiled but still sold to consumers who in turn got sick and died from
food poisoning. If during the police investigation the cause of that
death can be traced back to the Acme Diary Company then they can be
charged with Corporate Manslaughter. In this case, it wasn't an
employee who died but someone who died as a result of their negligence
far removed from the factory.
Manslaughter
Keep in mind that the definition of manslaughter is someone who causes
the unintentional death of another person or persons. The controversy
surrounding Corporate Manslaughter laws in the UK is that if a
corporation is found guilty, no one is actually sent to jail. Instead
the company is fined. There is no limit on this fine and that same
company could be ordered to change its policies and practices to avoid
further instances.
Controversial
Controversies around the Corporate Manslaughter law amount to assigning
blame. Just as in cases with toxic poisoning of water supplies, it is
often hard to assign blame when other human factors can be the cause.
In the above example at the Widget factory, the worker who fell asleep
might have been ordered to pull a double shift by his supervisor but
that doesn't mean it was the company's policy.
There may be other instances where people sign waivers exempting
corporations from any harm. Currently, there are no Corporate
Manslaughter laws in the United States. Most of these types of cases
are handled through the civil court system with essentially the same
end results.