Legal Updates

A manager of a corporation is personally liable for environmental criminal offenses of the corporation if did not act to prevent them

November 5, 2019
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A limited partnership dealing with landfill and recycling and manages a waste site and a company managing such site were charged together with their managers for breaching its business permit because waste was spilled outside the site and the site had untreated polluted water. As a result, environmental hazards were cause, including acute odor hazards.
The Court found the corporations and directors criminally liable. Both the Business Licensing Law and environmental laws, including the laws dealt with in the proceeding, establish personal liability for executives and officers who have not taken all reasonable measures to supervise and do all that can be made to prevent criminal offences by the corporation and its employees. Because the managers did not show that the offenses were committed without their knowledge and that they did all that was necessary and took all reasonable measures to prevent the offenses from being committed, the managers are also personally liable for the criminal offenses of the corporation.