Test Case: Two Workers Killed. Now, Their Employer to Pay $2 Million Fine

A California court made an unusual ruling this week. But first, this picture. It was taken outside a Hamlet, North Carolina chicken processing plant in 1991. The company used deep fry industrial vats to process chickens. It tripled the pressure in a hose to the vat to accelerate the cooking process. An explosion occurred. Next, the plant caught fire.

It gets worse, much worse. The company locked all the doors in the production area to keep workers from taking unscheduled cigarette breaks. Twenty-five workers died in the blaze. Many could be heard in their final moments pounding on the doors—the doors that the company padlocked.

The owner received a 20 year prison term. The company faced a criminal fine, too. That part is unusual—and takes us to California for a ruling last week.

Solus Industrial Innovations makes plastic parts. Their manufacturing process requires boiling water. To save some money, the company used a water heater for homes. They didn’t want to pay for a water heater built and rated for industrial uses.

The water heater, once overworked, exploded. Two workers were killed.

OSHA investigated. They fined the company $100,000—the maximum under law (which has weak remedies for extreme cases such as this).

San Diego prosecutors did something novel. They sought a fine of $ 1 million for each employee killed. To be clear, they brought this action not to recover for the estates of the two workers.

It gets more interesting. Prosecutors claimed that the fine was allowable under California’s Unfair Business Code. Their point: Unless Solus paid a heavy price for cutting this safety corner, the rest of the plastics parts industry would be undercut by this lowball competitor.

In a unanimous ruling this week, California’s top court allowed prosecutors' action for this deadly workplace accident. The company’s argument— that federal safety law was the only law that could be used to sanction Solus— was rejected in the ruling.