The movie, A Civil Action, relates to a true story of two corporation’s improper disposal of trichloroethylene and its consequences on a small town in Massachusetts. High incidences of leukemia arise and the affected families seek support to address the responsible parties by employing small firm, personal injury attorney, Jan Schlichtmann. Upon taking the case, he is greeted with unanswered questions and claims of improper hazardous waste disposal by local tanneries and corporations. The clients make clear that they are simply seeking ownership of those who caused the incidents and apologies for the committed actions that resulted in the deaths of their loved ones. Jan Schlichtmann’s view of the situation is that of family tragedy and …show more content…
the deaths of innocent children. His view of the situation combined with his proclaimed prosecution status turns his case into more of an ego-gratification rather than proper settlement. The accuser’s lawyers have a completely different view point than Jan Schlichtmann does of the case. They are two companies comprised of power-driven attorneys who see nothing more than how to maximize their financial gain and quiet the town’s people of Woburn, Massachusetts. Upon remediation of the case and introducing settlement outcomes to Judge Skinner, it is evident that he displays a biased demeanor and takes the sides of the two large corporations, Beatrice Foods and W.
R. Grace defense rather than remaining neutral, open minded and fair. Upon proceeding with the collection of evidence, Schlichtmann hires a team of professionals to test the waters and surrounding areas for evidence of hazardous waste pollution. Simultaneously, he interviews all the employees of the tanneries and corporations for evidence of improper hazardous material disposal. While Schlichtmann is conducting his research, Beatrice Foods and W. R. Grace attorneys are thinking of ways to silence the company employees who have spoken up. The science of the case is left behind in several ways. Firstly, during the first interaction between the judge and the attorneys. During this scene Jan Schlichtmann suggests that the defendants are trying to mock him in the courtroom which irritates the judge. Secondly, the moment that Jan Schlichtmann began to take the case personally, he began to lose sight of the evidence and focus simply on monetary reconciliation. The judge also overstepped the limits of scientific research for the era by addressing the jury and the court and requiring that the exact month and year be reported for each hazardous waste disposal into the water system. This is an almost impossible task to be completed in this time and was assigned by the judge to protect the companies. This practice also blatantly signified that he had no confidence or acceptance that trichloroethylene water pollution was probable cause for the high leukemia death rates in his state and mocked the case
entirely. Jan Schlichtmann repeatedly attempted to plead his case of water contamination and wrongful death by the tanneries and corporations but, each time, he is greeted with further humiliations and motions by the defending lawyers. It seems as if the affected families and Jan Schlichtmann are the only parties concerned about not only the health and wellbeing of a community but the negative environmental effects as well. At no time does the judge or anyone else ever display any concern over the pollution of the areas in question. The only time any of the unaffected workers seemed to care about the pollution at all was when the health department was coming to inspect and they needed to dispose of the hazardous waste containers. The outcome to the trial was not what I had expected; a glorious victory and corrective action and sanctions against the companies. Although the movie recounted the legal proceedings and events of unlawful and intentional hazardous material disposal and environmental pollution, the conclusion that can be drawn is that major corporation payouts trump environmental health. The ending of the movie, however, did instill hope back into the case when the Environmental Protection Agency succeeded in the cleanup of the area.
It is the case against “Dr. Wolodzko” (defendant) by “Mrs. Stowers” (the plaintiff) in Wayne County court for the actions taken by the defendant and confinement of the plaintiff in the private mental hospital based on valid court order.
In the past recent years, we have heard in the news around cases involving assault and battery cases involving professional athletes or other celebrity figures, however, it is “not uncommon in the sport and recreation environment for a person to be harmed as a result of another’s intentional conduct, both on and off the “field of play” Cotten & Wolohan, p. 214). Nonetheless, it is important to understand that the term “liability” is often not limited to athletes-as-combatants. For example, in Law for recreation & sport managers uses an example from page 215 that discusses a youth football game regarding how a referee was attacked by three coaches and also was tackled by a 14-year-old player, resulting in charges of felony battery. Thus, Hamakawa remarks to say, ”recreation and sport managers should be aware that their organizations are not immune from incidents involving participants, parents and other spectators, coaches, and officials, security
Abington v. Schempp was an important case regarding the establishment of religion in American schools. Until the late twentieth century, most children were sent to schools which had some sort of religious instruction in their day. The schools taught the morals, values, and beliefs of Christianity in addition to their everyday curriculum. However, as some people began to drift away from Christianity, parents believed this was not fair to the kids and justifiable by the government. They thought public schools should not be affiliated with religion to ensure the freedom of all of the families who send students there. Such is the situation with the 1963 Supreme Court case Abington v. Schempp.
Jonathan Harr wrote a compelling novel, called A Civil Action, on the actual events of a thrilling court case involving two major corporations and the families who were affected greatly. In Woburn, Massachusetts there were twenty-eight children who contracted acute lymphocytic leukemia between the years of 1964 and 1986. The explanation for the contraction of the disease and even the death of some of the children was discovered in the water; two municipal wells near the town were found to be contaminated with toxic chemicals. Eight families filed suit against W.R. Grace & Co. and Beatrice Foods Inc., accusing them for the contamination of the wells and the death of their children. The families only wanted an apology and the truth but when the case began, discovering the truth became difficult.
The movie “A Civil Action” released on January 8, 1999 provides viewers with an extraordinary story of the nightmare that occurred in Woburn Massachusetts in the late 1970’s. The people of this small town at the time had no idea what was going on until there were various cases of Leukemia in small children that ultimately resulted in the early passing of them. The people eventually had gone to find out that the drinking water in this small town was contaminated and there were many women that stepped in to get answers. This movie is a tremendously jaw dropping, eye opening account of a heartbreaking true story incident. There are various elements of negligence in this movie including, duty, legal cause, proximate cause and damages.
In the case of NY v Bernhard Goetz, on December 22, 1984, a Saturday afternoon, Troy Canty, Darryl Cabey, Barry Allen, and James Ramseur boarded an IRT express subway train in the Bronx heading south toward lower Manhattan. The four young men rode together in the back section of seventh car of the train. The defendant Bernhard Goetz boarded the same subway train at 14th street in Manhattan and sat on a bench near the back section of the same car of the train as the four youths. Goetz carried an unlicensed .38 caliber pistol in his possession which was loaded with five rounds of ammunition in a waistband holster (Lender). Leaving 14th street station, the train headed towards Chambers Street. Allegedly the defendant was approached by two of the youths, presumably Canty and Allen. One of the two youths that approached Goetz, Canty, demanded, “Give me five dollars”. Goetz responded by getting up and pulling out his .38 unlicensed caliber pistol. He fired four shots striking each of the four youths and shot one of the youths, Cabey, again. The bullet severed Cabey’s spinal cord leaving him paralyzed. The rest of the youths that were struck with a bullet fully recovered from the attack.
It is never enough to create a great product; it has to be coupled with a desire for that product. The competitive advantage that Wedgwood brought to his company was the ability to create demand for goods. He was able to see the needs of the market before the market did and then cultivating market demand to satisfy those needs with his goods. A differentiation strategy was put into place by Wedgwood for his products as there were already a number of pottery options available on the market. Instead of the low quality, irregular options that were available on the market, Wedgwood’s pottery was made from clay, rather than wood, and was a more uniform finished product. A method of increasing demand by raising the perceived value of the pottery is to drive up demand by the high affluent. One of the ways that he accomplished this was through a technique called inertia selling. By putting a high quality and reputable product in the hands of the elite with no penalty, Wedgwood can display first-hand his high-end craftsmanship and design. With the working class working in the homes of...
There are many ethical issues in the movie Erin Brockovich. This movie is about a mother of three who uncovers a water poisoning case by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) in southern California. Once it was proved that the company had knowingly dumped hexavalent chromium into the ground water, the utility company was found liable for a $330 million dollar verdict.
The Great Lawsuit Throughout the centuries, there have been many groups pursuing equal rights for themselves. These groups feel that they are excluded from privileges others possess and are subject to injustices that others are not. These groups feel they deserve better and that their presence in the world is unequal to others’. In the United States, a large percentage of women started to feel they warranted equal rights to men. Margaret Fuller was among the supporters of the movement and published a ground-breaking article called “The Great Lawsuit.”
The problem with pollution prevention is that it requires people to understand more than the intimate details of the production process; they must also understand the technical possibilities. Many corporations have environmental managers, which are generally responsible for helping corporations comply with the law. According to the case study, the work of environmental managers often expose them to many pollution prevention solutions, but they often have trouble getting access to production areas. Production often sees Environmental Managers as "the compliance police".
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.
Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit..." is essentially an essay directed towards the people of the United States, both men and women, calling for the equality of women. While it is nowhere near the call to action feminism today calls for, the beginning of a centuries long movement calling for the equality of women can be seen. Fuller begins her essay talking about the selfishness of mankind and its hinder on Man's ability to achieve true happiness and peace. The barbaric nature of man and her emphasis on Europe in particular draws on religion and mythology to state her point that Man was not created in the image of being selfish but has gone down that path anyways. Citing the French Revolution as a (failed) landmark in the fight for equality, she draws the conclusion that men and women know that there is a desire for true equality between the sexes. Turning towards America and the virtues that this country was founded on she states, "with so much talk about virtue and freedom must be mingled some desire for them," (Fuller 749). As with the African Americans and the Native people, the fight for equality does not just encompass men of all races, but women too; "As men become aware that all men have not had their fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had their fair chance" (Fuller 747). She
Tennessee coal ash spill occurred in December 22, 2008. A dike failed at Tennessee Valley Authority spilling billion gallons of coal ash. The ash had been stored and contained arsenic, selenium, lead and radioactive materials. These materials are very toxic. This spill is an example of environmental crime because it was caused by the Tennessee Valley Authority. An environmental crime is considered to be a white collar crime also known as corporation crime (Beder, 2002, pg 213). News media highly covered this crime in different ways. Media can change the framework in order to help us understand the situation better. Framing is principles of selection, emphasis and presentation (Schudson, 2003, pg 35). These two article shows how Tennessee Spill can be framed in different ways and with framing analysis it can tell you which frames is being used by the news media.
For my paper I chose the case of Avco Environmental. The case is fictitious and can be found on the businessethics.ca linked provided in prezi. The facts of the case are Chantale Leroux, a clerk for Avco Environmental Services, which is a toxic waste disposal company, has found evidence that Avco might be disposing medical waste in the local municipal landfill. I feel this case violates seven of the ten primary traps and eight of the ten prima facie duties. In reading the case, you can separate Chantale the person from Avco Environmental the company and see who has violated what traps.
Challenging the normality, Margaret Fuller rips the chains of women arguing for equal status in marriage, education, and participation in society throughout her essay “The Great Lawsuit.” During the late 1800s to early 1900s, the daily lives of women and men were undoubtedly divided. Based on gender, people were expected to execute specific tasks to ensure that the home and community functioned as smoothly as possible. Men typically worked outside of the house and participated in many city functions. Women, however, were much more limited in their movements. The majority of their expected work were done within the home– cleaning, cooking, gardening, and sewing. Women were also expected to marry and conceive, and anyone who did not, were seen