The mechanism of injury I described in my previous post: the fall on outstretched hand, is classic for hand injuries. If the stars had aligned differently, such an occurence could have proved disastrous for me.
And so it got me to thinking.
I had a chance to speak to a lawyer recently, about civil suits where plaintiffs seek damages. I was arguing that it seemed unfair to make companies pay large sums of money for the inappropriate actions of a small number of their employees. Shouldn't the employees in question be held responsible more directly? It seemed like the company was being held responsible simply because it had the money.
I'll admit though, had I suffered a potentially career threatening injury, I'd be suing the city, not the random workman who had left this unfortunate stub of concrete on the road.
I have noticed that I am more cautious going downhill now. I used to just fly down city streets. Now I'm riding the brakes like some old codger. Ah well.
And so it got me to thinking.
I had a chance to speak to a lawyer recently, about civil suits where plaintiffs seek damages. I was arguing that it seemed unfair to make companies pay large sums of money for the inappropriate actions of a small number of their employees. Shouldn't the employees in question be held responsible more directly? It seemed like the company was being held responsible simply because it had the money.
I'll admit though, had I suffered a potentially career threatening injury, I'd be suing the city, not the random workman who had left this unfortunate stub of concrete on the road.
I have noticed that I am more cautious going downhill now. I used to just fly down city streets. Now I'm riding the brakes like some old codger. Ah well.
I think the company should be held responsible as the individual is only performing the tasks in the company's interest. It's up to the company to ensure that it has enough procedures in place to minimize any incidents from their employees.
The chairperson can be held responsible for certain actions of the company, for instance if it was found that a company is knowingly disposing of toxic chemicals into a body of water, the CEO can end up in the slammer.
I think the tricky area is in deciding what a company should reasonably be expected to do to monitor the actions of its employees.
Like would the CEO be responsible if one of his random workers decided on his own to dump the chemicals so he could avoid the work of doing a proper disposal?
From what I understand so far, it's complicated, but an interesting topic from the oil company's perspective. If you're interested, we should talk.