Love Canal
There are some important legal aspects to the Love Canal case. Many civil actions or torts were brought against Hooker/Occidental during and after the Love Canal incident. By nineteen-eighty, Occidental faced over two billion dollars in lawsuits mainly from Love Canal but also from violations in other parts of the country. Assets would be sold off and all the people would only get a little bit of money and the government would be stuck with the cleanup.
This two billion dollar figure includes all the punitive damage cases brought about by individuals as well as the lawsuits filed by the federal, state, and city officials. Much of these figures were purposely inflated so when they were negotiated down the plaintiffs would still get a reasonable amount of money. This figure also included both punitive and compensatory damages. The courts eventually found that Occidental was liable for only compensatory damages. Occidental was not held accountable for punitive damages because a federal court judge found that they had not acted with "reckless or wanton disregard of safety or rights". This is one of the standards that must be proved along with negligence to continue with punitive damage lawsuits. This decision also lowered the amount of the lawsuits considerably so Occidental could afford to pay some of the damages.
Companies are normally held to strict liability when it comes too toxic dumping. This means if the chemicals are there illegally than it is the company who is responsible for them. In this case the company is at least partly responsible but the school board and city of Niagara Falls also acted negligently. Why then weren't they sued as well? The answer lies in the deep pockets theory of torts. This theory says sue the biggest company with the most money. Since toxic dumping is held in strict liability, Hooker admitted putting the chemicals there, and they have a lot of money, they were the perfect target for all the huge lawsuits that followed.
Another important legal concept involved in this case is the slippery slope idea. This is an important motivator for government agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to regulate pollutants and force companies in violation to clean up their act. This concept basically says if you give an inch they take a mile.
At the beginning, may be the intentions were changing through its construction process. But it certainly the canal had the support of workers and opposition on top of this many people. A interesting aspect I could say it is that The Erie cans was financed by the New York Stated and...
The plaintiffs, Bosse and Griffin, sued Chili’s for negligence seeking compensatory damages claiming a patron who pursued them following their skipping out on a restaurant bill was acting as agent for Chili’s at the time the patron caused the plaintiff’s car accident and that Chili’s was, therefore, responsible for the crash.
The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA is the result of a 1970 executive order by President Richard Nixon for the purpose of protecting the environment of the United States through regulation on business and citizens. Public opinion on the Environmental Protection Agency has been divided fairly evenly across the population of the United States as of recently, as compared to the widespread public concern of the 50’s and 60’s that led to the agency’s creation. Recently the agency has come under scrutiny for its contributions of millions of dollars in grants to researchers in order to hide the potential trade off of its actions in order to further the agency’s agenda. The EPA’s ever-expanding regulation could end up harming more than it actually
In conclusion, there were constantly problems arising during the construction of the Erie Canal. Even though the Erie Canal definitely helped boost economic activity and industrialization in Upstate New York, it also caused more and more people becoming reliable on the government. It also helped bring morality and ethics into their everyday decisions. The major hope of the Erie Canal was to make the United States a better country, but there were obviously paradoxes that came along with that goal.
The project turned out to be a disaster, and the French were dieing to sale the canal. Then Teddy offered to buy it, the French were more than willing to give it to him. But, Congress was less eager to spend the money on the Canal. In order to make things so a little faster, took a hand to organize a revolution that overthrew the government of Panama and replaced it with a nation who had a constitution like The United States. Because of Teddy’s actions, the rest of his life would be a waste. This caused the economy to drop because of the price for the canal, but to continue building the project, many jobs were
may face is economic loss. This is because Acme Underground Ltd. owes a duty of care to provide correct report of the sub-surface conditions to Mr.Sharp and the Municipality. Yet, they breach such duty when Subsurface Wizard determined that Acme Underground has made a significant error by not fully testing the soil. This caused the Municipality 350 thousand dollars extra to build the revised design [6]. However, this is not possible for the Municipality to pay because they stated to Mr.Sharp that it is not economically feasible for them to build the bridge if it costed more than 1.8 million dollars [6]. Since the Municipality contracted ABC Construction, they cannot breach the contract to stop the construction either. The 1982 precedent case, Junior Books Ltd. v. Veitchi Co. Ltd. [5], displays another example of how someone’s negligence can cause economic damages. In the precedent case, a negligently laid floor, not dangerous, caused the plaintiff to suffer numerous losses such as replacing the floor and business disturbance [4]. The defendant was later found liable and must pay the plaintiff for the profit loss of the time [4]. It is evident from this case that one can be found liable because of his/her negligent act. This is clearly displayed by Acme Underground as their negligence with the sub-surface conditions report caused the Municipality to suffer an economic loss. Therefore, Acme Underground Ltd. is highly
The Erie Canal was a man made water way that stretched to be three hundred sixty three miles long. The canal started construction in1817, and took nine years to completely finish the building process. People during this time had many positive, and negative opinions about the fact that this expensive canal was being built. The idea of the Erie Canal originates with Jesse Hawley, the idea was to connect the great lakes to the Atlantic ocean making an easy path to the west from the east without having to pass Niagara Falls. The canal was mostly built by Irish immigrants who were hated, or disliked, by most people. People had ideas and predictions about what would come of this canal. Let's just see which of the predictions were more accurate to
Case Study - Corporate Obstacles to Pollution Prevention. Overview This case focuses on corporate obstacles to pollution prevention. Pollution prevention can be complex, especially for large corporations. There are many different forms of pollution prevention, including emissions control devices and incremental changes in existing technology.
Arnold & Porter chose to sue Pittston rather than the Buffalo Mining Company because the value of the corporation allowed for adequate compensation to the victims. Author and head lawyer for the plaintiffs, Gerald M. Stern, writes that the original goal was sue to sue for $21 million for the disaster to have a material effect on the cooperation (51). To avoid responsibility Pittston attempted to prove that the Buffalo Mining Company was an independent corporation with its own board of directors. The lawyers for the plaintiffs disproved this claim by arguing the Buffalo Mining Company never held formal meetings of the board of directors and was not independent of the parent company. During this case Pittston’s Oil division had applied to build an oil refinery in Maine. The ...
Within the Gilbane Gold case, the major problem is the contribution of water pollution by dumping chemicals to speed production for Z CORP. However, there is doubt as to what extent the company violated city regulations. Tom Richards believes that Z-CORP broke regulations repeatedly but Professor Massin believes that it is not solid evidence. Part of the problem is that two different tests are involved: an older and a less sensitive test which does not break regulations but there is also the newer and more sensitive one which does. The newer test was said that the company just broke city regulations, but not by a large amount.
Corporations, through guidance of new laws, in the future in the United States, should be held more accountable for environmental crimes, because without these new laws corporations will continue to pay meniscal fines and serve little to no time in prisons for destroying the environment in which we have to live and survive.
My belief is that all agencies are responsible for this accident (Local, State, and Federal). The Mining Company, the Government and overall leadership is responsible for not protecting the mine workers’ safety. The Miners had concerns and voice out, begging for safe working conditions.
With all the new homes in the area, an elementary school was opened near the corner of the canal in 1955. Soon after the opening, students and teachers began complaining of being burnt, nauseous odors, and black sludge (Gibbs 21). It wasn’t till nearly thirty years later that the government finally decided to investigate the complaints.
...s best attempts to put a value on Robin Aloe’s life, including the loss of her earnings as well as her companionship, guidance and support to the family. In addition, the punitive damages of $18 million will be the court’s attempt to encouraging Toys R Us and similar companies to avoid importing unreasonably dangerous toys in the future as well as to follow the necessary guidelines before selling those products in the US market. This will help to create business practices that will be favorable for both the consumers and manufacturers.
It was believed that it would be cheaper for PG&E to dispose of the chemicals illegally since the company officials were more concerned with the profits than about people's lives. The hiding of this critical information had tragic consequences for the people involved. PG&E must have realized that they were guilty since they settled the case for $330 million in private arbitration. All in all, it probably ended up costing PG&E more money than it would have if they had properly lined the water pools and taken care of things the correct way in the beginning.