In order to incur the criminal liability of an executive, the causal link between the fault and the damage must be established for the period during which the executive was in office.

In a ruling handed down on 11 September 2018, the Court of Cassation ruled on the criminal liability of a company director in a case that dates back twenty years.

Prosecuted for personal injury and involuntary manslaughter, a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a company that had exposed its employees to asbestos and had held these positions between June and September 1974, had obtained a ruling from the investigating chamber to dismiss the case in his favour.

The civil parties appealed to the Court of Cassation, arguing that there was a causal link between his position as a company director and their loss.

However, the Investigating Chamber had established that the said executive had not been the cause of the asbestos exposure, as it had been present before he took up his post and even before he joined the company at a lower level. The Examining Magistrate’s Court also pointed out that the health standards of the time, which were not the same as today’s, had prevented him from having the information he needed to make rapid decisions adapted to the circumstances. It also pointed out that the company director, faced with major financial losses, had decided to close a plant, despite the opposition of a number of employees, some of whom had occupied the plant for several months, thereby reducing their exposure to asbestos.

The Court of Cassation agreed with this reasoning, ruling that there was no real causal link between the performance of the manager’s duties between June and December 1974 and the development or worsening of the disease that caused their loss during this period alone.

To read the full judgment, click here: Cass. Crim. 11 September 2018, no. 17-82.588