Beta Cleaning Case Study

In this case, we hear about Susan, who is the president of the United Food Corporation, a wholesale grocery company. A government agent, Tim, discovers unsanitary conditions at the warehouse, caused by a United employee. Will, the vice president of United assures, Tim, that the issue will be taken care of and it will not happen again. Will then hires a cleaning company by the name of Beta Cleaning to clean up the warehouse for $15,000. Beta Cleaning begins the job and discovers quickly that the job is going to be way more complicated than they originally anticipated. Beta then agrees to complete the job as long as Will agrees to paying them $25,000. Will, verbally agrees to this because he has a tight deadline approaching to pass the upcoming

This could be considered a crime because corporations are usually liable for the crimes their employees and agents commit within employment. So, for this case to actually be considered a crime, the prosecutor would have to argue that that the corporation could have prevented the act or had knowledge of the act. In this case, the unsanitary conditions could have been easily avoided. As the vice president of the company, Will could have prepared in advance for the inspection. He also is a high-up, authority figure who should have known better than to wait for the conditions of the warehouse to become increasingly worse. He knew when the deadline was yet, he continued to let the unsanitary conditions slide. Although Will is just the vice president, he still holds a fairly big role for the company. Therefore, he is considered a “high management agent” and resulted in letting the crime be authorized and committed. The United Food Corporation can also be held accountable because as a corporation, they failed to impose specific duties by law. As a grocery store, they are selling food and items that people are going to consume. Without the grocery store remaining clean and sanitary, they are violating the FDA’s mission. According to FDA.gov, there mission is to primarily ensure public health by the safety, efficiency, and security of human and veterinary drugs among other variables. In

This is true because the corporation is held liable regardless of who from the company committed the acts. The company also failed to impose specific duties of the law within the corporation. Susan can also be held accountable because she is the president of the company and holds a position of authority. According to the responsible corporate officer doctrine, she is held liable. There were also contracts breached, the bilateral contract and executory contract. With that being said, United Food Corporation still will owe the $15,000 to Beta