Enterprise liability

The theory of enterprise liability has been developed to cover situations in which a group of manufacturers adhere to a practice, procedure or standard which itself leads to the manufacture of a particular, unidentifiable injiuy-producing product. 

To establish that the explosives industry should be held jointly liable on enterprise liability grounds, plaintiffs, pursuant to their pleading, will have to demonstrate defendants joint awareness of the risks at issue in this case and their joint capacity to reduce or affect those risks. By noting these requirements we wish to emphasize their special applicability to industries composed of a small number of units. 

See the extensive discussion of Sindell and the enterprise liability theory in 46 Fordkam Law Rev. 963. 

Richard A. Epstein, Products Liability as an Insurance Market, 14 J. Legal Studies 645 (1985) George L. Priest Richard A. Epstein, Introduction, 14 J. Legal Studies 459 (1985) George L. Priest, The Invention of Enterprise Liability A Critical History of the Intellectual Foundations of Modem Tort Law, 14 J. Legal Studies 461, 462-63 (1985) Alan Schwartz, Products Liability, Corporate Structure, and Bankruptcy Toxic Substances and the Remote Relationship, 14 J. Legal Studies 689 (1985). 

Solvency refers to an enterprise s ability to meet its long-term debt obligations on a continuing basis. All financial statement users are interested in the liquidity of a firm in addition to the obvious liquidity concerns of creditors and management. Will the firm be able to pay its short-term debts as they become due Can the firm cover its current liabilities with its current assets Does the firm have an efficient mix of current assets, e.g., cash and inventory Do owners and management properly use the current assets To effectively answer these and other financial questions, it is necessary to use the following financial tools. 

Process safety incidents can lead to disruption of production operations that may last hours, days, weeks, or even years. Incidents that Define Process Safety is replete with examples of fires, explosions, and releases that have had a significant impact on the chemical and refining industries approaches to modem process safety (CCPS, 2008a). Severe incidents can lead to significant loss of life, destruction of property, and damage to the environment and surrounding infrastructure as well as regulatory and financial costs, civil and criminal liabilities, and even threats to the enterprise s survival (CCPS, 2006). For example ... 

American Enterprise Institute, Liability Project, available at http //www.aei.org/ research/projectID.23/project.asp (quote). See Henry N. Butler Larry E. Ribstein, The Sarbanes-Oxley Debacle (2006) Charles Fried David Rosenberg, Making Tort Law (2003) Michael S. Greve, Harm-Less Lawsuits (2005). 

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