LAW CASE STUDY

LAW CASE STUDY
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(July 2, 2012)
LAW CASE STUDY
Case overview
R. v. Commander Business Furniture Inc. was a 1992 case which involved Commander Business Furniture Ltd and the Scarborough residents. The defendant was undertaking a business in spray painting office furniture, which produced some hazardous emissions to the environment. The plaintiff accused the defendant of producing odour which caused some environmental discomfort in the area. They further argued that the odour seriously affected their property use and that immediate response would relieve them from the challenge. Mr. Hanson on the other hand was the vice chairman and the general manager of the company, who was not only in charge of operations, but also the custodian of the shareholders` interests. The counter accusation of the company by the local residents triggered some investigations proceedings and consequently to a charge in the court of law (Hackett Prov. Ct. J, 1992).
Important issues
According to the local residents, there was an M.O.E between Commander through Mr. Hanson and the residents. This was established back in 1985, and it sort to significantly reduce or abate the residents` complaints regarding the odour. But according to the residents the company did not take any reasonable efforts to respond to the situation.
Section 13(1) E.P.A was very critical to the case, since the resident were supposed to prove beyond reasonable doubts that the company was actively engaged to some hazardous operation which not only contaminated the environment, but also cause some adverse effects on them. A number of law sections were significant for terminology definitions, for instance section 1(1)(c) defined the term contamination while section 1(1)(k) defined natural environment. The two sections were important in identifying the position of odour and its impacts to the environment (Hackett Prov. Ct. J, 1992).
There were a total of six witnesses ...