Hampton Lumber Mills Case Summary

918 Words2 Pages

Introduction: Both law and ethics help our society to run effectively. Citizens must comply with law. Law can be defined as “must do”. On the other hand, ethics can perhaps be defined as “should do”. In this way, some could argue that laws define baseline rules that must be in place to help society to run. Additionally, it could be argued that ethics create a higher standard than laws for how society should be run. These two issues and how they relate have been debated by even the earliest scholars. In this paper, I will use a case from our textbook to help us examine how law and ethics relate. Summary of Case The case that I will be examining comes from pg. 105 in our textbook, Hamlin v. Hampton Lumber Mills Inc. (2011). In this case, Hamlin got injured while working for Hampton Lumber Mills. The lumber mill failed to train Hamlin effectively. Additionally, Hamlin was instructed to stand in unsafe spaces. Then, Hamlin was told to unsafely remove a board that was stuck in machinery. Hamlin’s thumb was mangled. Hamlin was hospitalized and unable to work for four months. Afterwards, the mill refused to reinstate him. Hamlin sued and received $6,000 in lost wages and punitive damages of $175,000. The mill won an appeal which stated that the …show more content…

In this case, we have a few stakeholders: the lumber mill, Hamlin, and future employees who could have similar lawsuits against employers. This decision did not help the lumber mill, as they had to pay nearly $200,000 in damages to Hamlin. This decisions was good for Hamlin, as he was payed for the harm he received on the job. Employees in the future may be mistreated badly and want to sue for damages outside of the 4:1 ratio suggestion. These employees will benefit from the case. Overall, I believe that society will be better off because of the decision of this case. So, the decision creates net benefits and is ethical according to Betham’s

More about Hampton Lumber Mills Case Summary

Open Document