Following the passing of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 ("the Act”) the first case has now come to court.

The case involved a prosecution against Cotswold Geotechnical (Holdings) Limited at Bristol Crown Court.

The case against the company arose out of the death of an employee in September 2008.  The employee was taking soil samples from the bottom of a 3.5 metre trial pit at a building site.  The walls of the trial pit were not supported and soil collapsed into the soil pit burying and asphyxiating the employee.

The prosecution argued that the company had failed to take all reasonably practicable steps to protect the employee from its unsafe system of work and that the trial pit was unnecessarily dangerous.  The company had ignored well recognised industry guidance that prohibited entry into excavations more than 1.2 metres deep and, in addition, the company had left the employee unsupervised on site.

The prosecution established that the company's conduct caused the employee's death and amounted to a gross breach of a relevant duty of care owed to the employee.  They also established that a substantial element of the breach was the way in which the company's senior management managed or organised its activities (or, indeed, failed to do so). Some commentators considered that the Act was designed to bring large companies to account but this case proves that it will apply to all companies regardless of size.

In conjunction with the case, one of the directors of the company was initially charged with gross negligence manslaughter.  The only reason that did not proceed was due to the director's ill health.

If you need any advice or assistance in relation to this Act please contact either Robert Turner or Rob Kelly.