A quick google search will turn up everything you need to know about the Business Judgment Rule, a firm rule of American law.  The highest authorities agree — a court should not substitute its judgment for the judgment of a business making a good faith business decision.    

Economists teach us about externalities.  Externality is an extremely nice, bloodless, abstract term for something that may be otherwise quite hideous. An externality is a cost that is not originally figured on, an unforeseen expense associated with bringing a product to market, a downside to be calculated in determining the bottom line.

A factory makes batteries in a land where labor is cheap.  Not only is labor cheap, there is no regulation against dumping factory waste into the local water system.   Getting rid of toxic chemical waste safely is expensive, as every factory owner in America knows.  If the corporation can just dump the chemical waste in the river they can save a ton of money, make higher profits.  It’s win-win.  Cheap labor force and no health or safety regulations. Huge profit vectors.

The rash of cancer deaths in children downstream in the river valley where the factory is located is an externality.  It is arguably an atrocity, a sin, certainly a public relations nightmare, but its monetary cost is also, like any other business expense, something to be reconciled on the corporate balance sheet, after it is resolved by the corporation’s legal department.  In practice, the families of the dead children, being in dire poverty, will settle the wrongful death cases for rupees on the dollar.  The life of a dead poor kid is about as cheap a life as you can buy.   The cost of paying the parents of these dead children is an externality, as is the death of the children themselves.  These are not intended consequences of the business policy, they are a kind of unfortunate price paid for the business decision made to maximize profits.  

The Supreme Court ruled that a corporation has only one legal responsibility: to provide profit for its shareholders.  The corporation was elevated to personhood, and lately given an unlimited voice in American elections by the Citizens United ruling, but the sole legal duty of the corporation remains, as the Supreme Court decreed many years ago:  to make maximum profit for shareholders and executives. 

People die as a result of corporate policies.  An externality.  Business judgment rule.  Unfair practices are committed routinely, business judgment rule.  The courts will not substitute their judgment for the judgment of those running a business.  It is fucking hard to run a business, Jack.  Let those with the expertise, the vision and the genius, folks who actually run the business, make the business judgments.  We owe them at least that much, Business Judgment Rule.   God bless America, its flag and the republic for which it stands.