A company in England is the first to have been charged with committing an offence under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (came into effect on 6 April 2008). Under the Act an organisation is guilty of an offence if the way in which its activities are managed cause a person’s death and amount to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed by the organisation to the deceased.
An employee of Cotswolds Geotechnical Holdings was killed on 5 September 2008 whilst he was taking soil samples from a pit which collapsed crushing him to death.
Mr Eaton, a director of the company has been charged with manslaughter by gross negligence and also under section 37 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, which says that a where an offence is committed by a company with the consent, connivance or neglect of a director, the director will also be guilty of that offence. The company itself has also been charged with breaching section 2(1) of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 (failing to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of their employee).
The case called in June when Mr Eaton appeared to face the charges as an individual and also on behalf of the company. It will be interesting to track the progress of the case and observe the approach taken by the courts to the first charge of its kind.
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Carly Forrest