Personal liability, environmental

Risks for rarely occurring events provide business for the Lloyd s Syndicate of London. Lloyd s is a consortium of wealthy investors who agree to back insurance contracts with their entire personal fortunes (unlimited hability) for such events as the loss of an opera singer s voice or an oil-tanker catastrophe. Lloyd s was a primary purchaser of corporate environmental liability reinsurance contracts, but it suffered many losses on those contracts and was forced to restructure itself in 1993, ending its 300-year history of unlimited personal liability (Raphael 1995). 

The extent of personal liability under OHS legislation is generally less than that under environmental law. The use of due diligence is specified as a defence in two states and would certainly protect senior company officers from liability in all other states. But, more than this, in most states ignorance of the contravention is a defence, provided that the ignorance is not negligent or wilful. In New South Wales the Act states that a senior officer is not liable if the... 

Some environmental and worker safety laws carry not only corporate or civil but also personal criminal liability. Usually this applies only in extreme cases of willful neglect or intentional falsification of records, but it is there to put some teeth into the laws. These penalties are usually reserved for top-management levels but could apply to a rank-and-file worker if it was determined that he or she deliberately did not follow a clear procedure and that there was an intent to enforce penalties for not following the procedure. In other words, if it is management s intent to look the other way in the case of employee misconduct, then management, not the employee, is at fault and is therefore liable. 

Hard questions have to be asked. What are the actual costs of doing business The long-term cost of reduced quality in lost product loyalty and warranty liability What are the costs in productivity for knowledge workers when wages are low, and personal training and development opportunities non-existent What are the costs of taking on much more risk than the rewards warrant How will it affect the organization to set environmental stewardship aside for short-term profits ... 

Statutory nuisance. Under the statutory nuisance regime in Part III of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, liability fell in the first instance on the person responsible for the nuisance , this term being expanded to mean the person to whose act, default or sufferance the nuisance is attributable .26 Responsibility would pass to the owner or occupier of the premises if no such person could be found or if the nuisance arises from any defect of a structural nature .27... 

Traditionally speaking, civil liability for environmental damage means an obligation, under certain conditions, to compensate for damages caused to persons, jHoperty, or proprietary rights. It is for the plaintiff to prove the existence of the following factors ... 

Stages, industry and all persons shall be liable to pay for the environmentally harmful consequences of their actions and development programmes... The principle of the polluter s liability, or the polluter pays principle as it is commonly known, shall be strictly applicable. (Recommendation 1130(1990)). 

It is soiously questionable and debated that civil liability is suited as an instrument to remedy environmental damage. Remedial action should remain primarily within the domain of public law and it is up to the States to decide what public instruments they are going to use to restore damage to the environment. Civil liability is only seen to have a role in compensating damage suffered by a party to his person, property or proprietary rights. The extension of civil liability law mechanisms to compensation of pure... 

Many environmental and safety regulations carry criminal liability provisions. This means that a person who breaks the law can be prosecuted under the criminal code. Furthermore, if anyone else approved of that act, or failed to stop it, knowing that a violation was taking place, then that person is also liable to criminal prosecution. In addition, a corporate officer can be held vicariously liable for the conduct of a subordinate employee. This also applies if that officer deliberately screens himself so as not to hear the facts. It is important that plant personnel know the seriousness of the regulations and the consequences of noncompliance. 

When significant environmental incidents occur, the polluter pays principle requires the person responsible for the pollution to bear the cost of putting it right. Historically, the polluter pays principle has focused on retrospective liability, the guilty party pa5ting after the event. However, in recent years the focus has moved towards avoiding pollution in the first place and addressing wider environmental impacts. 

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