Joseph Stoddart, manager of the St Alban's centre in Lyme Regis, was found not guilty of the same charges after the jury failed to reach a verdict. Travel and Life. British Transport Police, Hertfordshire Police and health and safety executives examine the train following the Hatfield rail disaster in 2000. At the opening of the inquiry, Sir Martin stated that the scale of the task is enormous adding he would not shrink from making findings which could affect criminal prosecutions or civil actions. A public inquiry was launched the following day chaired by retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick. The disaster caused the death of 51 passengers. Tombs S, The UKs Corporate Killing Law: Un/fit for purpose?, Criminology & Criminal Justice Accessed 18th March 2018. Why has there been only a single charge of corporate manslaughter (against P & O European On 12 December 1988, a passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal and another empty train then crashed into the debris. Finally, the remedies currently available may not be sufficient to satisfy those seeking justice. On 12 December 1988 the 07:18 from Basingstoke to London Waterloo, a crowded 12-car train made up of four-car 4VEP electric multiple units 3033, 3119 and 3005, was approaching Clapham Junction when the driver saw the signal ahead of him change from green ("proceed") to red ("danger"). Corporate manslaughter legislation has done very little to prevent deaths attributable to directors intransigence. [33], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}512726N 01028W / 51.4571N 0.1744W / 51.4571; -0.1744. Hidden was critical of the health and safety culture within British Rail at the time, and his recommendations included ensuring that work was independently inspected and that a senior project manager be made responsible for all aspects of any major, safety-critical project such as re-signalling work. When the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower in London in June 2017 claimed 72 lives and injured another 70, it was termed corporate manslaughter by MP David Lammy (Hughes 2017 ). Earlier this month, survivors of the Paddington rail disaster criticised the decision not to prosecute anyone for manslaughter over the crash which killed 31 people. [10] The last casualty was taken to hospital at 13:04 and the last body was removed at 15:45. The first is that one of current suspects is a local authority. However, it could be argued that the act was only bought into force after several disasters had taken place in the 1980s and 1990s. It was caused by a metal fatigue -induced derailment, killing four people and injuring more than 70. In conclusion, several issues may make successful prosecution difficult in relation to Grenfell. Gobert J, The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 Thirteen years in the making but was it worth the wait? The Modern Law Review (2008). View of the crash site and clean up operations following the accident, Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007, "On This Day, 12 December 1988: 35 dead in Clapham rail collision", "Changes in Working Hours Safety Critical Work", "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", "Legislating the Criminal Code: Involuntary Manslaughter", "Serious irregularity at Cardiff East Junction 29 December 2016", "Collision at London Waterloo 15 August 2017", Clapham Junction rail crash, United Kingdom, Railway accidents and incidents in the United Kingdom, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Clapham_Junction_rail_crash&oldid=1132102074, Railway accidents and incidents in London, History of the London Borough of Wandsworth, Transport in the London Borough of Wandsworth, Accidents and incidents involving Network SouthEast, December 1988 events in the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 7 January 2023, at 07:37. The crash site, near the Vale of Tempe, in northern Greece, on Friday. Their subordinates do not. 42 42. . This analysis written in 2018 is an example of my distinction level research in my law degree. The Clapham rail disaster, one of the worst rail disaster of Britain, involved multiple train collision in London. He then called the Clapham Junction station manager and asked him to call the emergency services. Published: 24th Jun 2019. A consumer purchased the pack for a shilling more than advertised as a result. 2.3.4. Mr Kite was found guilty because he was directly in charge of the activity centre where the children were staying. M was a citizen of Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) who arrived in the UK seeking asylum. In this case the courts lifted the veil and found that the defendant had formed a company which they saw to be a sham. He had also performed the work during his 13th consecutive seven-day workweek. The ongoing investigations publicized the fact that the events that had caused the disasters would have been preventable if the management practice had been of good quality. Lockdown sceptics like me were demonised but we were right, Republicans can't follow 'celebrity leaders' with 'fragile egos', says Trump's ex-lieutenant Mike Pompeo, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's failure to pay for couture 'tax the rich' dress 'may have broken rules', Losing to Leeds put Thomas Tuchel in a tailspin Graham Potter cant afford same fate, Pep Guardiola fumes at double standards over Manchester City timewasting, New batch of Kings Coronation oil features some extra special ingredients. On the morning of 12 December 1988, a crowded passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal, just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. Lord Reid approves of the judgement and carries on to say: Normally the Board of Directors, the Managing Director and perhaps other superior officers of a company carry out the functions of management and speak and act as the company. This is because he had a duty of care towards other ships on the river, as well as his own, and the passengers upon all of the ships. Related articles Train derailment because of landslide leaves 10 injured Railway historian Adrian Vaughan suggests this may not be the best way of handling faulty signals. HKARMS Lasting effects of material railway safety accidents 18 November 1987 King's Cross fire in the UK 12 December 1988 Clapham Junction train collision in the UK 3 June 1998 Major derailment of German ICE Intercity Express 25 April 2005 Amagasaki derailment in Japan 24 July 2013 Santiago de Compostela derailment 22 March 2016 Engineer jailed for sending his team to . This duty of care was breached due to the fact the company policy was to make sure the boat set off with the bow doors closed. [9] This could be seen as the incorrect decision as P&O Ferries Ltd clearly had a duty of care towards their customers and employees. British Rail were fined 250,000 as the signalling technician . The move came after a controversial decision not to prosecute anyone for manslaughter following the Paddington rail disaster in which 31 people died in October 1999. It is very unlikely a conviction would have been at the trail of these cases as the act is complicated and it is just as difficult to find a company guilty of corporate manslaughter under the act as it is under the common law, which previously existed. The Clapham disaster was also quoted when a new law on corporate manslaughter was introduced in 2007. The only successful prosecution of a corporation for manslaughter through gross negligence involved a company owned by one man. There have been other acquittals for Corporate Manslaughter including in R v PS and JE Ward which demonstrates the difference in the standards expected by Health and Safety legislation and the burden of proof, beyond all reasonable doubt, for corporate manslaughter. There is some debate to how well this case tests the senior management test, given that on the facts there was a somewhat smoking gun as the company had received clear, unequivocal and repeated warnings of a stockpiling hazard but had not acted. The signalman immediately switched all the signals he could to 'danger', and signalled to the adjacent signal boxes he had an obstruction on the line. Therefore, it could be argued that a political gesture was offered when the act was created. The ship capsized in March 1987, killing 193 of the passengers and employees onboard. Another 415 sustained minor injuries. The collision was the deadliest rail accident in the country's history. In the lens of the Grenfell Tower incident, one of the largest potential problems is determining whether or not the council performs an exclusive public function an argument brought forward by Professor Oliver (see above). . However, it could be argued that British Rail should have been convicted of corporate manslaughter, due to them having a duty of care towards their passengers. However, it could be concluded that Henderson, the skipper of the Bowbelle, should have been convicted of corporate manslaughter by gross negligence. Others are directors and managers who represent the directing mind and will of the company, and control what it does. His argument was that the standard rule in negligence described by its Latin maxim Ex turpi causa non oritur actio applied, and as they had conspired to commit an illegal act, he could not have been negligent. Indeed, it may be apt to say it was a mere political gesture offered following several high profile disasters such as the Clapham Junction rail crash, Piper Alpha, and the Herald of Free Enterprise. Therefore, this contributed to him and the company being found guilty for the death of four students due to insufficient safety measures. Roper reports in her 10 year review that the criticism of the senior management test hasnt proved to be central issues in the cases to date. She does go on to argue that without the limiting effect of the test, it was very likely more cases may have been brought. The fire spread and claimed the lives of 71 people. A further criticism of the act would be one made concerning the feelings of the family and friends of the deceased. and 1990s high profile incidents, such as the Herald of Free Enterprise and Clapham rail disaster, have demonstrated the difficulty in prosecuting companies for corporate manslaughter because of the lack of an identifiable controlling mind within the companies who could be said to be responsible for a death. On the September 8 of that year, Alexander Wright - a young geologist and graduate of Imperial College, London - was taking soil samples from inside a 3.5m deep excavated pit as part of a survey on a building site near Stroud, when the sides of the pit collapsed . In this paper, I will critically evaluate the law relating to corporate manslaughter and consider whether any difficulties may arise if criminal prosecutions ensue by looking at the development of the law, a critical analysis of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 (CMCHA 2007) and an application of this analysis the Grenfell Tower fire. [21] Unprotected wrong side signal failures where the failure permitted a train to go beyond where it was permitted had to be reported to the Railway Inspectorate. Before the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 was enforced, companies were rarely found to be guilty of manslaughter. A total of 35 people died in the collision, while 484 were injured.[1]. This is the acts causation element which is left undefined. Some of the notable incidences were the Clapham Rail disaster of 1988, leading to 35 dead and 500 injured. The Law Commission report Legislating The Criminal Code, Involuntary Manslaughter highlights several high profile disasters including; the Kings Cross Underground Station fire, The Piper Alpha Oil Platform disaster, the Clapham rail crash and the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy as examples of situations in which inquiries had found corporate bodies at fault but no successful prosecution for manslaughter had been brought. This principle made it difficult for the courts to make a conviction due to the fact that it stated only an individual can be responsible for such a serious offence. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. If the Basingstoke train had carried on to the signal following the next signal, the crash would not have happened because the Bournemouth train would have stopped at the signal where the crash occurred. If a company is found guilty of corporate manslaughter the action taken against is generally an unlimited fine or a publicity or remedial order. Furthermore, the fact that no convictions were made could have made the government feel under pressure to change the law and make it easier for companies to be found guilty of corporate manslaughter. . Only 7 convictions have been made since the act was bought into force, even though 34 prosecutions were bought in front of the courts. Once a corporation is created they are given a separate legal personality. Section 1(4) clarifies that senior management in relation to an organisation, means: The persons who play significant roles in i) The making of decisions about how the whole or a substantial part of its activities are to be managed or organised, or ii) the actual managing or organising of the whole or a substantial part of those activities. The fact that there had been only two convictions exposed "the absurdity of the law of corporate manslaughter as it presently stands," he has said. CAV Aerospace may well have been a special case, but Grenfell provides a real opportunity for the legislation to be tested. The driver of a fourth train, coasting with no traction current, saw the other trains and managed to come to a stop behind the other two and the signal that should have protected them, which was showing a yellow "proceed with caution" aspect instead of a red "danger" aspect. Southall Rail Disaster (1997) 68 2.3.7. The Metropolitan Police Service have told survivors that there are reasonable grounds to suspect Kensington and Chelsea council and the organisation of corporate manslaughter. A key case demonstrating the high bar that is required for a Gross Breach is R v Cornish. Roper concludes that we will have to wait to see if the concerns about the duty of care requirement were in fact well founded.. Medical manslaughter and corporate liability* - Volume 19 Issue 3. . The British Rail Board admitted liability for the accident, which was attributed to careless work by signal engineers. Corporate manslaughter is a criminal offence committed by corporations, companies, or organizations. Qualifying organisations also include corporations, police services and partnerships, trade unions or employers associations that function as an employer. Identifying principal aims of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. . Although the eschewing of Crown immunity was widely welcomed, both complete exemptions and partial exemptions exist to cover decisions relating to the allocation of public resources or the weighing of competing public interests, terrorism operations and exclusively public functions alongside exemptions related to emergency responses and the training for those responses. deaths in November 1987; the Piper Alpha oil rig fire, 167 deaths in July 1988; the Clapham train crash, 35 deaths in December 1988; the Purley train crash, 5 deaths March 1989 and the sinking of the Marchioness, 51 deaths in August 1989. Although one of the reasons for the change in law was to remove the identification doctrine which hindered many cases under the common law, academics have argued that the issue has not been fully resolved due to the Senior Management test. He made complaint to an Inspector of Weights and Measures resulting in prosecution and a fine of 25 and costs. Of note is the exemption provided by s6 that there is no relevant duty owed by an organisation in the way in which it responds to emergency circumstances. This is contrary to the position of the Joint Committee who recommend that emergency services should only be liable in cases of the gravest management failings.. [5], The driver of the Basingstoke train was off his train and standing by the line-side telephone when his train was pushed forward several feet by the collision. Clapham Rail Disaster (1988) 65 2.3.5. This is a question for the jury to decide if the case proceeds to deliberation and section 8 of the act gives directions on the factors to consider including whether there was a breach in Health and Safety legislation and if so, how serious the failure was and how much risk of death it posed. It was against this backdrop that the Law Commission proposed new legislation to reform the offence of Corporate Manslaughter which was enacted in The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.. The CPS write in their legal guidance that The intention was to follow aspects of the law on gross negligence manslaughter. Grenfell will likely become the biggest test of the act yet. The identification doctrine only allows for an individual to be found guilty of corporate manslaughter and this is evident in s1(3) of the act because the conviction will not be made unless an individual, part of the senior management, is found guilty. Also, a relevant duty of care can be the duty the company owes to anyone involved directly with the company, for example the suppliers. It said in order to convict a company, individual defendants who could be identified with the firm would themselves have to be guilty of manslaughter. United . The state of mind of these managers is the state of mind of the company and is treated by the law as such.. However, criticism of the act alleged that in some ways the act was a wolf in sheeps clothing; a lack of individual culpability, the Identification Doctrine replaced by the Senior Management test (which some suggest could be troublesome to overcome in large and complex organisations), and exclusions wide enough to give the impression of Crown immunity by the back door. The clear up effort after the crash which claimed the lives of 35 people Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Clapham Junction rail distaster that killed 35 people, injured hundreds and. [3][4], As a result of the collisions, 35 people died, and 69 were seriously injured. Marchioness Disaster (1989) 66 2.3.6. At 8.13am on 12 December 1988, three trains collided in south London in one of the UK's worst rail disasters. As of 1999, the rule book had not been changed. However, a trade off then appears with the situation described by Celia Wells as Well plead guilty as a company if you drop the individual charges against directors as was the case in Lion Steel. Gobert notes that between the Law Commission recommendations and the Home Office consultation document neither contained this requirement. The breach could be seen as gross negligence manslaughter as the company should have been making sure the working conditions were safe for their employees to work in. It is important, however to look at the effect of this test 10 years on from the legislation. Their demand for a. Byline: Brian Dean The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 ('CMA2007') came into force on the April 6, 2008. Explaining its decision. Updated on Apr 13, 2022. The trial collapsed when Turner J directed the jury to acquit the company and the five most senior individual defendants, The commission said that the principal ground for the decision in relation to the case against the company was that, in order to convict the company of manslaughter, individual defendants who could be identified with the company would have themselves to be guilty of manslaughter; since there was on the facts insufficient evidence to convict any such individual defendant, the case against company also had to fail.. The collision between a passenger train and a freight train killed at least 57 people. News reports state that at least 60 companies have been involved in working on Grenfell adding to the complexity of the investigation and finally the remedies available to the court are only that of a fine, which against a Local Authority may only remove money from the very people who need it most given that the sentencing council suggests that compensation, in general, ought to be left to the civil courts. Therefore the prosecution will need to prove that the breach was a more than minimal contribution to the death (de minimus), This approach has been criticised as the Law Commission had explicitly stated as a recommendation that it should be possible for a management failure on the part of a corporation to be a cause of a persons death even if the immediate cause is the act or omission of an individual., James Gobert argues that The 2007 Act rejects the law commissions conception of causation in favour of the more conventional approach to causation used by the courts which have been a source of controversy and confusion and continues by saying in light of the subsequent decision of the House of Lords in R v. Kennedy (2) indicating that free and voluntary acts of informed adults of sound mind will ordinarily break a chain of causation, the Law Commissions formulation may be needed more than ever if the Act is to have any bite.. Overall, due to the outcome of these high profile cases and many more the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act was bought into place. So it is almost settled law that an express trust should be consist of the following characteristics Asylum; judicial review; contempt. The Clapham Junction railway crash occurred on the morning of 12 December 1988, when a crowded British Rail passenger train crashed into the rear of another train that had stopped at a signal just south of Clapham Junction railway station in London, England, and subsequently sideswiped an empty train travelling in the opposite direction. 2002 - Potter's Bar. These include employment duties and occupier duties amongst others. Corporate killing: Government proposals for reforming law on corporate manslaughter . Although the maximum fine is 20m, there are several conditions in step four of the Sentencing Councils guidelines that may affect any proposed fine. 21, Issue. In conclusion, the previous common law that existed made it difficult for companies to be found guilty of corporate manslaughter due to the identification principle. The difficulty within the senior management test lies in several places. Whether or not a duty of care is owed is a question of law to be decided by a judge, not a jury, but its requirement has drawn academic criticism. However, the act has only been in force for two years consequently, the courts may find it easier to interpret in the future leading to further convictions of corporate manslaughter. The skipper of the Bowbelle, the boat which caused the capsizing of the Marchioness, was found not guilty of failing to keep an accurate look-out. Roper V, The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 a 10-year review, Journal of Criminal Law (2018). In January 2005 the trial began of five rail managers and the company Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance (which employed two of the managers), charged with manslaughter over the death of four men in the Hatfield Train Crash of 2000. These include the Kings Cross Underground Fire, The Clapham Rail Crash, and The Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy. Develop 'accidents' associated with corporate activity the Clapham Rail disaster, the King's Cross re, the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion, and most promi . It was still a matter of seconds since he had challenged the man from the balcony; but the old clerk had already regained the top of the stairs, panting a little, for he was an elderly . The commission continued and analysed the Herald of Free Enterprise tragedy highlighting that the jury at the inquest returned verdicts of unlawful killing in 187 cases and the DPP launched prosecutions against the companies and seven individuals. Using that evaluation, consider whether any difficulties may arise if any criminal prosecutions ensue. 41 41. The act also applies to any body corporate wherever incorporated allowing foreign companies to be prosecuted as long as the harm resulting in the was sustained within the territory of the UK The legislation has deliberately cast the net wide, but with some restrictions including individual liability which Clarkson argues may diminish prosecutions of directors as companies become an easier target, with the government explaining that liability still exists under the law of gross negligence manslaughter.