The Legal Issues in Erin Brockovich Movie - Essay Example

Erin Brockovich is the story of Ms. Nobody who at one time was making desperate efforts to make ends meet. Erin Brockovich is inspired from the real story of Erin Brockovich Ellis who was born in the year 1960 and is currently a legal clerk in America and also an environmental activist. She had no job, no money to make things happen, a broken marriage and kids to raise. She was living on meager earnings made from doing odd jobs. The most phenomenal part of this fairy tale movie is that Erin Brockovich even lacked a formal law school education but took on the mighty Pacific Gas and Electric Company in America’s one of biggest class action suit till date. Erin Brockovich worked as a law clerk in a litigation law firm and was quite unpopular because of her demeanor. Due to her bitchy comments she proved to be a liability for her firm in many cases. Her big day arrives when one day her firm hands over a pro-bono real estate purchase case to her. In which the Pacific Gas and Electric Company was trying to buy the property of a family residing next to one of its company plants. Erin gets suspicious and begins investigating the real reson behind the purchase. She discovers a major scandal and comes to know that PG&E has deliberately and in full know has dumped deadly chemical residue that was very toxic and dangerous for humans in to the town’s waters. The dumping of deadly chemicals in to the town’s waters has resulted in a number of life threatening diseases in the people living around the plant’s premises. Erin Brockovich did a lot of spade work and unearthed the real truth about the dumping backed by solid evidence. She then took her boss in to confidence and motivated the people living around the company’s plant to bring a class action suit against the company and seek damages for the ills committed by the company. Her resolve and determination single handedly brought the Pacific General Electric Company on its knees and resulted in the triumph of the peoples movement against the arbitrary ways of big corporate giants who are just interested in making profits but lack the social responsibility that comes with it. ( Erin Brockovich(2000) The legal issues that are inter-connected with this movie relates to the environmental law legislation, tort law and class action suit for damages incurred by the negligent act of a big corporate house. In Canada if a similar event has occurred then an civil action for damages can be brought in the Court of Law. Major provincial statutes that are relevant to the environment include the Environment Protection and Enhancement Act, the Water Act, the Public Lands Act. Major Federal Statutes relevant to environment include the Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act,1999. In matters relating to environment generally Federal and Provincial governments co-operate with each other. As far as International agreements and commitments relating to environment are concerned constitution empowers only the federal govt. to enter in to any international agreement or treaties etc. International treaties can be implemented through domestic laws and where the federal govt. has direct control over a matter, Parliament has the authority to implement the treaty otherwise co-operation from provincial govt. is sought. Under the above mentioned Environment Acts, whosoever wants to indulge in a hazardous activity that may have adverse effect on the environment then a notice has to be given by him to the govt. and approval sought that is declined in many cases if the activity is too dangerous for the Environment.( http://www.elc.ab.ca/Content_Files/Files/ABC-finalprintcopy.doc.pdf ) If someone like a big corporate house like in the movie or any other company indulges in hazardous activity that has an adverse effect over the health of citizens then any affected member of the public can obtain an injunction from the Court against that activity. A class action suit for damages can also be brought about against the culprits. (a) The law of ‘Negligence’ will play a important part here. Negligence has two meanings in law of torts : negligence as a mode of committing certain torts e.g. negligently committing environmental pollution, trespass, nuisance or defamation( in this context it denotes the mental element) and Negligence is also considered as a separate tort. It means a conduct, which creates a risk of causing damage, rather than a state of mind. In traditional sense in an action for negligence the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant owed duty of care to the plaintiff, the defendant made a breach of that duty and the plaintiff suffered damage as a consequence thereof. But through legislation Strict liability has been introduced in the field of negligence, so that the sufferer doesn’t have to go through the usual grinds of legal procedure. Canada Shipping Act,2001 covers the aspects of criminal negligence in dangerous operation of a vessel. Highway Traffic Act takes care of negligence involving car accidents and Medical MalpracticeLaw takes ample care of negligence committed in medical field by imposing strict liability.(Bangia) (Halsbury) Under Common Law systems ‘The Rule of Strict Liability’ as espoused in the case of ‘Rylands v. Fletcher’(1868)L.R. 3 H.L.330 revolutionized the field of environment legislation and plays a major role in class action suits such as these. In the year 1868 the House of Lords laid down the rule recognizing ‘No fault’ liability. The liability recognized was ‘Strict Liability’, i.e., even if the defendant was not negligent or rather, even if the defendant did not intentionally cause the harm or he was careful, he could still be made liable under the rule.(Bangia) This rule of Strict Law plays an important part in class action suits in English Law as well as Canadian Law as both countries follow the Common Law system. Corporate can be brought to book for damages suffered by ordinary people even if they put solid defense to prove that they are not liable. As discussed above the current set of laws in Canada empowers the common man to fight against the apathy of negligent corporate for indulging in dangerous activities that have harmful effects on the health of people at large. The Constitutional Law clearly states that even the International obligation and treaties pertaining to environment entered in to by the govt. will have to be honored under the domestic law. There are ways and means to do that. A redress from the judiciary is also available and any negligent party can dragged to the court by any vigilant and affected citizen and made to pay for the crime it has committed. In nut shell it can be said that the deeper issues that the movie Erin Brockovich raises are the protection of environment, a peoples movement against the rich, negligent and guilty corporates and the power of the judiciary to restore order and bring the guilty party to book can all be attained by any person under the Canadian Laws. The Environment Protection and Enhancement Act, the Water Act, the Public Lands Act, Fisheries Act and the Canadian Environmental Protection Act,1999 .give enough teeth to a enlightened citizen to go after the guilty parties. Works Cited Erin Brockovich(2000).Directed by Steven Soderbergh http://www.elc.ab.ca/ http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/#egalite Negligence, Halsbury’s® Laws of Canada –LexisNexis Canada R.K. Bangia, Law of Torts, ALA Canadian and International Law, Oxford Canada (Ch..5 Constitutional Law ; Ch.13 Environmental Law) Read More