A tort refers to civil wrong committed by an individual. In some cases, it attracts some compensation for damages or injunctions. However, people and companies should learn to keep off from harmful activities that could result in court cases. It adds a financial burden to either an individual or a firm due to the costs associated with hiring of the legal representatives and the penalties that follow after that. The plaintiffs, who were a group of about 17,000 persons, sued the Colonial Pipeline Company in the U.S due to the oil spillages that caused a fire outbreak in five different counties. The research indicates that the fire broke from the oil spillages from the company (David, Jaffe & Hayes 237).
The fire injured several people causing deaths, injuries and loss of property. The plaintiffs believed that it was their right to seek compensation from the company since they perceived that the accident resulted from negligence. There were four different raptures from the company pipelines, and it led to the fire outbreak. First, it was unethical for the company to set up the oil firm in a residential place. Putting to Consideration the risks associated with the oil companies, it was immoral for the firm to establish such a big company where people lived. To avoid such accidents, the company had the responsibility to relocate the people to safer grounds. The oil company was also unethical because it also caused air pollution during the rapture of the oil pipes. Another unethical behavior of the oil companies involves their unwillingness to compensate the victims despite their negligence to regularly check the pipes. This led to the case taking around 12 weeks before the judges could deliver the ruling (Jerry, 324).
Oil is an environment hazard product hence the people responsible needed to handle it with utmost care. This was however not the case in the colonial oil company because the pipes needed to be far away from the occupants in the area. Nonetheless, the regulatory bodies also failed because they botched to implement the rules that tend to regulate the companies and the industries that manufacture harmful products to the people. Therefore, when penalizing the company, the regulatory authorities needed to receive a share of the blame because they needed to foresee the impending dangers the company had to the people. For this reason, the regulatory authorities deserved to compensate the victims because they also demonstrated a high degree of negligence.
The corporate structure of the company was based on a collective social responsibility. For example, they conducted campaigns to increase pipeline awareness in the country. As a result, the increase in the awareness of the oil corporation acted as a precaution measure because it warned people against digging holes or installing fences around the company (Energy Industry Investigation, 176). The action prevented the breakage of the pipes that would cause oil leakages. However, the accident did not occur from the activities of the humans in the area. Therefore, they needed to compensate the affected parties because it would also help in the improvement of their public image.
This type of tort is a strict liability since there was no intention to cause harm or damage to both the people and the property. This type of debt occurs when an activity is dangerous to the people hence the necessity for responsibility (Victor, 192). It compensates the affected parties because the company went ahead to establish the oil company despite knowing the hazards associated with it. The company was an environment toxic to all the living organisms in the area. Therefore, there was the need to exercise caution in all their activities, for instances, regularly checking the pipes and increasing awareness in the population on the need to keep away all flammable objects.
Works Cited
Energy Industry Investigation: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Monopolies and
Commercial Law of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Ninety Fourth Congress, First and Second Sessions, on Energy. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1976. Print.
Markham, Jerry W. A Financial History of Modern U.s. Corporate Scandals: From Enron to
Reform. Armonk, N.Y. [u.a.: Sharpe, 2005. Print.
Schwartz, Victor E. Torts: Keyed to Courses Using Prosser, Wade and Schwartz's Torts-Cases
and Materials, Eleventh Edition, by Schwartz, Kelly and Partlett. New York, NY: Aspen
Publishers, 2006. Print.
Victor, David G, Amy Jaffe, and Mark H. Hayes. Natural Gas and Geopolitics: From 1970 to
2040. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Internet resource.
