Butte Montana, located in the south-west quarter of the state, is and always has been a company town. Butte is situated on what has been called the richest hill on earth. The mining rights to this fabulous hill belong to the Anaconda Copper Company. By 1892 the Anaconda Company had become the world's largest producer of copper achieving an output of 100 million pounds. By 1978 the company proudly claimed that over 20 billion pounds of copper had been mined from (...) the richest hill on earth.In the past Anaconda has employed approximately one-third of Buttes work force, paid 58% of the county property tax and annually pumped millions of dollars into the local business community. While it is clear that Anaconda and Butte are inextricably wed, since the early 1970's the residents of Butte have come to resent their nearly 100 year marriage of convenience to the copper giant. At present the major area of contention between the company and the citizens of Butte found themselves confronting the following predicament: What personal property and fiduciary rights can an ordinary citizen expect to maintain in the face of the needs and requirements of advancing industrial progress? (shrink)

Butte Montana, located in the south-west quarter of the state, is and always has been a company town. Butte is situated on what has been called the "richest hill on earth." The mining rights to this fabulous hill belong to the Anaconda Copper Company. By 1892 the Anaconda Company had become the world's largest producer of copper achieving an output of 100 million pounds. By 1978 "the company" proudly claimed that over 20 billion pounds of copper had been mined from (...) the "richest hill on earth." In the past Anaconda has employed approximately one-third of Buttes work force, paid 58% of the county property tax and annually pumped millions of dollars into the local business community. While it is clear that Anaconda and Butte are inextricably wed, since the early 1970's the residents of Butte have come to resent their nearly 100 year marriage of convenience to the copper giant. At present the major area of contention between "the company" and the citizens of Butte found themselves confronting the following predicament: What personal property and fiduciary rights can an ordinary citizen expect to maintain in the face of the needs and requirements of advancing industrial progress? (shrink)

For the most of us, work is an entirely non-discretionary activity, an inescapable and irreducible fact of existence. According to E. F. Schumacher one of the darkest aspects of contemporary work life is the existence of an appalling number of men and women condemned to work which has no connection with their inner lives, no meaning for them whatever. Work for too many people is perceived as down-time, something that has to be done, but seldom adding to who they are. (...) And yet recent surveys indicate that 74% of the work force would chose to work even if they were not financially required to do so. Why?This paper contends that people want to work because they are intuitively aware that work, be it bad or good, helps to shape them. It gives them a sense of direction and allows them the opportunity for personal creativity and fulfillment. Work is the axis of human self-making. Work molds the person and work is the mark of a person. Satisfaction with life seems to be related to satisfaction with our work and the quality of our lives seems dependent on the quality of work that we do. (shrink)

The task of preparing a case is similar to writing a legal brief or an essay insofar as all three should contain a thesis or main point and argumentation or logically arranged facts and inferences. However, different from a brief or an essay, case studies should not contain a conclusion. A case should lead the reader through the facts, but it should not offer a firm or fixed resolution or moral judgment. Ideally it should leave the reader with the opportunity (...) to create and insert their own conclusion.A good case study should be amenable to the following kinds of questions or analysis procedures:A. What is the problem? or What is at stake? B. What are the non-normative or factual issues involved? C. What are the normative or ethical issues involved? D. What are the alternatives available? E. What decision would you make? (shrink)

On Thursday, August 26, 1982 the Manville Corporation and its principle American and Canadian affiliates filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Manville's unexpected bankruptcy petition stunned the financial community, surprised Congress, shocked their creditors, suppliers and customers, totally outraged those who have filled damage suits against them and raised a complex tangle of legal, political and ethical issues that will have far reaching implications for millions of Americans. (...) The drama of the Manville announcement stems from the fact that this is the same Manville Corporation which last year earned $60.3 million on sales exceeding $2 billion with an uncumbered net worth of $1.1 billion. This is the same Manville which ranks 181st on the Fortune 500 list of American corporations. And this is the same Manville which has been traditionally included in the 30 companies used to calculate the prestigious Dow Jones industrial average, the most watched indicator of prices on the New York Stock Exchange. While there are many factors in the equation that resulted in Manville's final decision, Manville Chairman John A. McKinney angerly announced that his company could no longer sustain or survive the blitz of toxic torts that it was now facing.Many of Manville critics have claimed that Manville is acting in an immoral and illegal manner. They are held to be immoral insofar as their critics feel that they are using the bankruptcy boom as a means of avoiding just compensation for those who have truly been injured or killed due to excessive or abusive exposure to asbestos. Manville is accused of acting illegally in that the spirit and purpose of the 1978 Bankruptcy Act is being violated because no company has ever filed for Chapter 11 given the size of their assets, their net worth and their yearly sales figures. Other observers suggest that this is much too simplistic a response to the situation and that whatever the final merits of Manville's petition the factors involved in their decision warrant a careful and detailed analysis. (shrink)