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Can a corporation be charged with murder?
Dalboz
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
Resident Puppy EaterRight behind you...Registered User regular
A corporation is defined as a legal entity or a juristic person with certain rights and privileges afforded to it, in which the several members are considered to act as a single entity.
Consider this case. In short, CIGNA Healthcare declined to pay for a teens liver transplant, then reversed their decision hours before the girl died. The family has requested that the district attorney charge CIGNA with murder or manslaughter.
So, what are the legal rights of the corporation, and how far do they extend to the corporation being considered a legal entity in terms of being charged with something normally directed at a single person? If charges are brought up and the corporation found guilty, how would such a crime be punished since there are ranges provided under the law, most of which require prison time?
Consider this case. In short, CIGNA Healthcare declined to pay for a teens liver transplant, then reversed their decision hours before the girl died. The family has requested that the district attorney charge CIGNA with murder or manslaughter.
So, what are the legal rights of the corporation, and how far do they extend to the corporation being considered a legal entity in terms of being charged with something normally directed at a single person? If charges are brought up and the corporation found guilty, how would such a crime be punished since there are ranges provided under the law, most of which require prison time?
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Seems like the company proved it had the ability and in the end it did not violate their fiduciary responsibilities to approve the transplant, and in choosing to delay....
That is some pretty painful surgery.
Manslaughter or reckless neglect &c. I could see. Not a murder charge. It's kind of hard for an office building to get a good grip a gun.
I think the idea of corporate personhood is retarded. A corporation is a legal construction; you should be able to hold it liable for a death, and receive compensation, or to charge the officers of that corporation criminally for the corporations actions, but the corporation itself shouldn't be able to be charged criminally.
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how do you pinpoint them? There's a whole chain of command involved, from the mouth-breathing case officer to the CEO, and ultimate responsibility can lie with any one of them. case officer might be a chode, or might be under orders from above. orders might have been misinterpreted, etc etc. The company will close ranks immediately to prevent anyone getting a good idea of how their operation works, and pinning ultimate responsibility on a person or persons without simply nailing the scapegoats becomes very difficult.
Agreed. Criminal law deals with the conduct of individuals, not entities.
What kind of sentence does corporate manslaughter get a company in the UK?
even then, I mean shit... fucking blackwater. christ.
naw, we don't have any sort of anti-business laws like that.
rico, is the closest thing I know of.
In a criminal trial there is a much higher burden of proof than in civil law so it would be easier to actually get a favorable decision.
The clear disadvantage of civil litigation is that corporations can hire legal teams who are experts at clogging up the process in the hopes that plaintiffs will eventually have to drop charges or settle because they can't afford to continue.
Anarchy is right in saying that it's mostly been rail companies that are charged. This case saw only a fine over Health and Safety laws, with the execs escaping a coprorate manslaughter conviction.
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Which is civil law, not criminal.
And? In the US you can't charge a corporation for murder or manslaughter. If they want some justice done their best bet is a wrongful death suit. Don't get me wrong no amount of money will ever be worth the daughter they lost. Period. But I'd at least try to get something out of the bastards. Of course then people's premiums rise etc etc. Vicious cycle and whatnot. What else are they supposed to do?
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Well yeah, that was my point. If they want to effect some sort of punishment on CIGNA they'll have to take action themselves and can't hope that the government will be able to punish them criminally.
That and corporations shouldn't be subjected to criminal liability because civil law is better suited to deal with them.
No kidding. My insurance turned down medicine for my kid about a month ago. Not a big deal, we just went with the generic stuff. The thing that gave me the red ass was the nice little pamphlet I recieved about two weeks later asking me if I wanted to obtain health insurance for any pets I may have.
Now hearing this, I don't even know where to begin to express my outrage. I really don't feel like reading the article, did it mention the precise reason for her to have it denied? She was a kid. With a liver problem. I'm willing to bet she didn't drink, so why in the fuck isnt she getting ready for santa with her new freaking liver? fucking corperate assholes. everyone is a fucking number and no one matters. doc is right. someone needs to run up in there like, as much as I hate to refrence a movie right now, the two angels did in dogma. blow all of those overpaid drones into the next fucking life.
wow. im sure their canned fucking response is really making the family feel better
why is it important wether or not it would work? i understand because there are other people on the list. but i doubt that is why cigna denied it. isnt any shot to save a life worth it? perhaps if she was a politicians daughter or the daughter of the asshole who had the final say in turning them down? i wonder how much it would matter then.
The movie 'Quiz Show' springs to mind.
I don't know, criminal negligence might still be applicable to corporations or individuals taking place within them. Even though charges may never stick due to the higher burden of proof and such it still seems like an avenue that should be accessible to people depending on the situation. I know it was part of the Hyatt collapse, though I don't think the architect got any sentencing and was just stripped of his license by the AIA and his firm got reamed in civil suits. (Which was really too bad for him, because it was the dumbass intern's fault even though he should have been more attentive to his fuckups. It's also why we have the highest liability insurance behind doctors)
Criminal liability would exist if someone negligently failed to follow protocol, or perhaps didn't properly access the girl's case. You have to remember though that the procedures of these insurance companies are set up to deny as many claims as possible.
The corporate entity itself could not be held criminally liable for the reasons i mentioned before.
It would be interesting to see if you could hold someone who designs a business model that leads to such predictable results criminally liable for negligent homicide. These models are usually an amalgam of established predecessors though and it's hard to say who, if any one, is responsible for the methods they employ.
I find it pretty disgusting.
I'm not sure that those generalizations hold up in specific cases. I mean, no doubt there are attempts to obscure information and whatnot, but is it more than in any other criminal case? And we didn't seem to be totally unable to send people to jail in the wave of financial misdoing here in the U.S. around 2001.
it's fairly new, so noone's been charged, as far as i know.
Coca Cola and Chiquita Banana could be charged with mass slaughter in Latin America
Dyncorp would be charged with organized child sex slavery kidnapping in Bosnia circa 1999-2002
I WISH corporations could be held responsible, and not in that Enron limited hangout sort of way
Anyone seen the powerful documentary "The Corporation"?
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Not really responsible, but helped facilitate it in the same way as IBM's adding machines kept the cow cars of 'undesireables' on time. The Corporation actually is an excellent documentary regarding the twisted form that corporations now embody which are only partially restrained by regulation when you go up to the big boys. It's still the best way to keep my boss from losing his house if something goes wrong and the company gets sued/fails, of course, but the spectrum is so broad as to need consistent reminding.
There are some things about this case that really don't sit right with me. The fact that the patient was in a vegetative state for week before she finally died. Would a transplant committee really sign off on giving a liver to someone in this state, even if the insurance company signed off on it. This entire situation seems to be playing off the notion that since the kid died, it must be the evil insurance company's fault. As much as I dislike the insurance industry, the family looks to be setting things up for a nice civil suit that will get settled quickly due to the bad press.