Liability for slips & Corporate Criminal Liabilities

Project 3 Liability for slips The Directors of Speedy Roofing Ltd. are concerned that the number of injury claims has been increasing lately. Roofers are not yet falling off roofs but are suffering repetitive strain injuries, twisted ankles from poor footing, minor abrasion injuries from handling materials and generally have a higher injury rate and higher absenteeism rates than other construction trades. The directors have come to you for advice as what they should do to implement and enforce safety policies, particularly occupational health and safety policies. They are also concerned with their personal (director’s) liability should a worker sue them personally or if provincial workplace safety inspectors find that the rate of injuries violates provincial standards. Does this expose the directors to personal liability? Prepare a in 3-6 pages memo to be submitted individually on Blackboard citing the statutory authority from the Business Corporation Act and case law that makes directors personally liable for safety violations. The group presentation you will make is to the board of directors in this corporation stating their potential liabilities for this issue. What if a roofer falls off a roof and dies? What are the liabilities of the directors? Does Workers’ Compensation Insurance protect the directors from personal liability? Should the directors be worried? (Hint: Review the readings and assigned text for Week 9, especially the Nielsen v. Epstein and the Stewart v. Enterprise Universal Inc. cases). Project 4 Corporate Criminal Liabilities The directors of Home On the Range Ltd. have come to you to brief them on the liabilities of the corporations and their own potential liabilities. H.O.R. is a re-cycling facility operator. It plans to take incredibly toxic substances (such as PCBs, plutonium, nuclear power plant waste, and other stuff) and “process” them into useful consumer goods such as disposable diapers, water bottles and roof shingles. The company’s present operations take “post consumer waste” such as newspapers, used pop cans and water bottles and manufacture consumer items such as clothes and furniture. The directors are concerned because some of the employees of H.O.R. have been with the company a long time (they call themselves “old HORs”). These long time employees are a little careless when it comes to following company procedures and policies. The directors want to know what are the possible liabilities they and the corporations have for criminal and other civil liability if the employees commit criminal or regulatory offenses. The directors have heard they may be criminally liable for environmental offences caused by the company’s operations. The Directors ask you whether R v. Bata Industries could allow them to pass a bylaw that would indemnify them for any criminal fines or punishments, should the they be prosecuted. Prepare a 3-6 pages memo to be submitted individually on Blackboard citing the statutory authority from the Business Corporation Act and case law that makes directors criminally and civilly liable for corporate and employee criminal violations. Include a discussion about bylaws used to indemnify directors discussed in R v. Bata Industries. Hint: Review pp 220-229 of the assigned text. You should also review R V. Metron (workers killed) http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2013/2013onca541/2013onca541.pdf and R v. Bata Industries Ltd. (toxic chemicals left outdoors) http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/1995/1995canlii395/1995canlii395.pdf and R v Syncrude Canada Ltd. (ducks killed in tailings ponds) http://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abpc/doc/2010/2010abpc229/2010abpc229.pdf The group presentation you will make is to the board of directors of H.O.R. stating their potential liabilities and that of the corporation for this issue. Do the directors eliminate their liabilities by establishing policies and procedures? Do they have to monitor those policies? Are there enhanced liabilities (higher standards of care) for dangerous operations? Is there significance in the fact that the old HORs have been known to be careless in the past? Does this have an effect of potential liabilities for the directors? Review R v Metron. Is it significant that in that case some of the victims had ingested drugs before the accident? Was the agent supervisor that caused the deaths of the workers acting within the scope of employment and if not, is the corporation still liable criminally? Can bylaws indemnify (save harmless) directors? 6-12 pages for both combined, along with a powerpoint presentation for both due by midnight today.