Business Law and Ethics

This document discusses the concepts of business law and ethics, focusing on a case study of breach of contract and the ethical position of US Union Carbide Corporation. It explores possible remedies for breach of contract, legal positions in different scenarios, and provides advice for handling such situations. The document also includes a report on the Bhopal gas tragedy and the ethical position of the company involved.

Business Law and Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
1 Possible remedies available to Raymond..................................................................................3
2 if Samantha had paid 200 euros to Raymond three weeks earlier from the due date and if he
had also agreed to this..................................................................................................................4
3 The legal position if Raymond had requested the payment of 400 euros from Samantha as
the full and final settlement..........................................................................................................5
4 Advice for Samantha.................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................6
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................7
Report on disaster in relation to the ethical position of US Union Carbide Corporation............7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Business law shows the minimum standards of the behaviour of the company. It is the
law related to the trades and commerce. Business ethics is simple. It tells that in what manner
business should behave and what are the legal obligations of the business. It involves values like
honesty, respect, confidence etc. this study will discuss the breach of contractual relationships
and remedies which include a case study of Raymond and Samantha.
MAIN BODY
PART 1
1 Possible remedies available to Raymond
Breach of contract occurs when any one of the party deny in performing according to the
contract. The remedies for the breach of contract are:
Money damages:
Money damage means payment that have to make in money by the party who has breached the
contract. Monetary payments will be made according to the damages done by the party in the
terms and conditions of contract. The case of Raymond was partial breach in that the completion
cost is quite expensive (Mittlaender and Buskens, 2019). Raymond can go to the court and with
the help of court he can take full payment from Samantha. Money damages are two types
compensatory and punitive damages. Under compensatory, breaching party have to pay the
compensation to the non breaching party whereas punitive means punishing the person who had
breached the contract.
Restitution:
It is the remedy used in restoring the damaged party to position captured before contract. This
principle says that the defendant have to pay all the money which is agreed by him or her to the
plaintiff and here compensation strategy will not apply. Raymond can sue Samantha and ask for
complete payment under this law rather than agreeing on 200 euros.
Specific performance:
This principle says that the party who has breached the contract have to perform the duty
mentioned in the contract (Mitchell, 2019). This is use when money is not essential for the
compensation. Raymond can use this principle also because Samantha did not pay him on time,
so he can file case against her in the court for the non-payment of the complete amount and also
claiming the interest amount for the delay in paying 200 euros.

Advance payments:
Raymond should have taken some payment or complete payment in advance as Samantha was
stranger for him, so he should not have complete trust on her. If he had taken advance payment
then he will not have to suffer from any loss or partial loss if he had taken half payment (Zhang,
2020). Advance payment reduce the headache of the plaintiff and defendant are also got bind to
them.
Self help remedies:
Self help remedies is very useful as it will involve less interference of the court which include
enforcement of security, rights against the goods etc. under this Raymond can ask for some
security from Samantha which can be any gold deposit or some money deposit as a security that
if in future she will not pay the money then Raymond have right to keep the security of
Samantha with him.
2 if Samantha had paid 200 euros to Raymond three weeks earlier from the due date and if he
had also agreed to this
If Samantha has paid 200 euros before the due date then it will show that she is concern about
the payment, and she is also guilty of not paying the complete amount on time because the way
of communication is very important if someone apologizes to other party then that party will
understand the concern and will also not hurt the relationship between the parties. If Samantha
had done this then this would show that how genuine she is and actually wanted to pay the
complete amount but due to her bad financial condition she is unable to pay the amount but
Samantha has done opposite to it she has paid 200 euros after the due date where she has to pay
800 euros but paid 200 euros only and also paid after the argument (Cowton, 2017). This shows
that she is not bothered about the payment much. She was only delaying the payment.
Raymond agreed to the payment of 200 euros which Samantha has given before due date
because he will understand the situation of the person, and he will not angry on him and will not
even think in taking any legal action against her because legal action is time-consuming and both
the parties have to pay some money like lawyer fees, court fees etc. If someone does fraud with
anyone then he or she is destroying her or his image herself or himself only. Giving the payment
earlier also means that the person is very serious about that and that person is not thinking about
doing any fraud. Raymond is not liable for compensation if payment done three weeks earlier.

3 The legal position if Raymond had requested the payment of 400 euros from Samantha as the
full and final settlement
If this agreement had done by Raymond that he will do full and final settlement in 400 euros then
he will not able take much legal action because he had verbally or in writing has given his
concern that he is agreeing with this settlement and if he had given verbal agreement also then
also it has given equal importance as the written agreement. Then it will consider as the wish of
Raymond that he agrees on the payment of 400 euros. Then according to the law he is not liable
to take any legal actions but after sometime he can personally ask Samantha for the remaining
payment if he wishes because after some time it may be possible that the financial condition of
Samantha can improve.
The agreement which has given by the Raymond for 400 euros will be considered final only
because Raymond is the receiver or the receiving party and if he is agreeing on that then this will
consider as the final settlement only and if in case Raymond has not given any agreement of
particular amount for the full and final settlement then Samantha is liable to pay complete
amount to him (Arsalidou, 2018). Legal action is taken if any of the party do not agree on
particular situation. If after the request of 400 euros, Samantha only pays 200 euros then
Raymond has the right to take any legal actions against her because he will get strong points
against her that 800 euros she has to pay but due to her bad financial condition he is agreeing on
400 euros, but now she is also not paying 400 euros also.
4 Advice for Samantha
Advices for Samantha are:
 Samantha should have politely gone to Raymond before the full and final settlement and
would have explained to him the complete situation of her that she is suffering from bad
financial condition. There is the possibility that Raymond would understand her concern
and gave her some time for paying the amount because if you do apology before the
situation become the worst then the other party will understand your problem but if you
talk arrogantly to the other party then he or she will not sit quietly because every legal
agreement comes with legal actions (Burchardi, 2020). But in this case Samantha did
bitter argument to Raymond and did not make apology afterwards.
 Samantha is already a struggler so from starting only she is facing financial problems.
She would not higher such expensive business accountant rather she would have search

for such accountant who can do her work in that amount which Samantha can afford. She
can also ask Raymond for paying the money in instalment because this will reduce
burden from Samantha as she is paying the money in instalment not the complete amount
at a time (Machin and Wilkinson, 2020). She should understand that doing fraud is not
good that can hurt her image also and in future if she is doing any contract with someone
then the other party can face trust issues with her.
 If her painting has sold in 20000 euros then she should have automatically given the
remaining payment to Raymond because earlier she had made contract with him of 800
euros. Samantha should also consider all the legal actions which Raymond can take
against her. If once the legal action will be taken then Samantha has to agree on the
decision made by the court so its better to do settlement outside the court only.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that business laws and ethics plays vital role
and every business should follow the rules and regulations laid down by the government. Breach
of contract is discussed and also discussed the remedies. Advice given to Raymond regarding
legal action he can take against Samantha because she had paid only 200 euros to him and also
given my point of view if Samantha had paid 400 euros to Raymond three weeks earlier then the
due date. If Raymond had asked 400 euros to Samantha for full and final settlement then he does
not have any legal position in that case. Detailed advice given to Samantha.
PART 2
INTRODUCTION
Ethics can be explained as some standards which describes what is right and what is
wrong. It generally involves some basic terms like obligations, rights, obligations, benefits to the
society, fairness. In the business or company, the ethics involves understanding proper business
policies and practices and also the study of controversial subjects like corporate governance,
bribing, corporate social responsibility and other responsibilities. This report is prepared in the
context of ethical position of US union carbide company when Bhopal gas tragedy happened.

MAIN BODY
Report on disaster in relation to the ethical position of US Union Carbide Corporation.
The union carbide company is the corporation dealing in chemicals and polymers,
including 2300 employees. It operates in cost-efficient way and ensures large scale production all
over the world. The company does production of chemicals and polymers which undergoes more
conversions before reaching the final consumers. It is one of the major manufacturer of America
which deals in chemicals, petrochemicals and other related products (Krishnan, 2019). The
company was formed during war time, they immediately started manufacturing diversified
products including helium, ferroziconium, and started making activated carbon for US military.
As soon as World War 1 ended, it started its business in consumer field. The World War 2
diversified the companies in research and development activities. Union Carbide Corporation
was the first corporation in the development of atomic bombs (Kumar, Choudhury and Pandey,
2019). This company also manufactured plastics, carbon products, industrial gases, metals and
medical products. Soon the Union Carbide Corporation is merged with Dow, Union Carbide,
they were the leading manufacturer of chemicals and polymers, which are used in various
consumer and industrial products, antifreeze and coatings.
On December 1984 the accident took place at Union carbide plant situated at the Bhopal, India.
It releases highly toxic gas named methyl isocyanate and more other poisonous gases. At that
time this accident was called to be the worst industrial accident. The estimated numbers was
more than 15000 to 20000 of deaths. The gas was at the lower level or at the ground level in the
environment which caused throats and eyes to burn, nausea and many deaths (Mittal, 2016).
Many of those people who were exposed to the gas that night and gave birth to the mentally and
physically disabled children. Many people suffered blindness and eye irritation, respiratory
problems.
Position of US Union Carbide corporation before disaster:
The International Corporation of America i.e., US Union Carbide Company, established
its plant in Bhopal (India) to take competitive advantage in the market. In economic
development, as an emerging company, India offers the low cost labour, easy connections with
consumers and decrease cost of transactions of business. After the US Union Carbide Company
established its plant in India, it took very little incentive to decrease the human and
environmental risks in production of pesticides. The US union carbide was giving more focus on

economic and financial gains and not other risks that are associated with that. On the other side,
Union Carbide Company also neglected or failed to monitor the operations of Internationally
working company (Raghun and Jayaprakash, 2020). The unethical practices of Union Carbide
Company was motivated by the desire to get more strong relations with the sub continent of
India and in respect with it they are neglecting the risks associated with human life. They forget
that life of humans is more important than the strong relations with other countries. The unethical
factors in relation with disaster is neglected by Union Carbide Company after getting aware or
warn too. Before this accident took place, the plant has stored methyl isocyanate in containers
which were large and filled them above the recommendation level, and also little maintenance
was done to increase it efficiency some safety systems were not functioning accurately and
various safety devices were remained off to save the money. Before the incident took place the
condition of the plant was in very bad state. Employees are also not provided with good working
conditions, various cost reduction strategies were followed that affected the working conditions
of employees and employees themselves. The employees made number of complaints to their
authority, but no one gave the attention to the cries of employees rather they were fired and fined
for this behaviour. The other investigations disclose that the unit of methyl isocyanate was
malfunctioning from last four years and no measures were taken. Some steam boilers which are
used for cleaning the pipes was not working. No damages pipes were replaced and no trainings is
provided to the employees, they were forced to use English manuals and booklets. The Union
Carbide Company is mainly focused on to get competitive advantage and attempted to hide their
safety measures, maintenance records, and various malpractices in Bhopal plant.
Position of US Union Carbide Corporation after disaster:
After the disaster, the Union Carbide Corporation starts attempting to separate or disconnect
itself from the responsibilities in relation with the gas leak. It started following various tactics to
shift to Union Carbide India Limited without taking the blame of gas leakage or huge disaster.
They were in the planning to state that the whole or complete plant is operated by Indian
subsidiary. After the investigation, it was also revealed that there were number of safety
violations and equipment violations. There was lack of major preparations to handle the
emergencies and there were no safety measures for those emergencies. No messages was given
to authorities about the danger substances that were used or produced in the plant.

The other investigations disclose that the unit of methyl isocyanate was malfunctioning from last
four years and no measures were taken. Some steam boilers which are used for cleaning the
pipes was not working. No damages pipes were replaced and no trainings is provided to the
employees, they were forced to use English manuals and booklets.
Compensation to the victims:
The American lawyers came to Bhopal and filed the damages for the victims. The legal lawyers
started compensating the claims of billion dollars to the families of victims. The corporation
finally agreed to pay the settlement amount of 470 millions. This settlement resulted in removal
of all the criminal and civil charges against Union Carbide. But most of the people still left
without the compensation, and Indian Government again raised the complaint. In some cases,
Union Carbide Corporation failed to pay the compensation amount to the injured and their
families.
Toxic waste clearance:
After the incident has taken placed, the site was full of toxic materials and badly rotting, which
could be cleared by Union Carbide corporation. But they did not cleared the plant site, which
was not the ethical practice had done by the corporation. They must have taken the necessary
steps to clear out the waste and toxics from the plant site.
CONCLUSION
From this report it is concluded that the Union Carbide Corporation and others learnt
valuable lessons from this whole disaster to take necessary precautions and develop contingency
plans to deal with the emergency. Instead of checking and monitoring the operations of the
corporation, the US government did not follow their role and discontinued the operations. Union
Carbide with the other chemical companies has initiated the Responsible care programme to
prevent any future emergencies, creating awareness, etc. the survivors of disaster are still
suffering and fighting to get the compensation. This disaster was the worst disaster of the
industrial history. It explains what can happen when ethical values are not followed and
necessary precautions are not taken in respect to the emergencies. So this all shows the ethical
position of US Union Carbide Corporation.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Ethics. Springer Verlag.
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the United States. Forthcoming, Rutgers University Law Review (2020).
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