At about 23: 30 on August 12, the dangerous goods warehouse of Hairui Company in Tianjin Binhai New Area Development Zone exploded, causing heavy personal and property losses and shocking the whole country. People silently prayed for Tianjin in different ways, wishing the deceased rest in peace, the living strong, the incident can be handled as soon as possible, the cause of the accident can be quickly identified, and the legal responsibility of the personnel can be severely investigated. Now, we have made a legal analysis of the explosion. From the perspective of legal responsibility, this paper makes a preliminary analysis of different responsible subjects, different types of responsibilities and the investigation and commitment of responsibilities, and seeks advice from local experts. I. Types of Responsibility Possible accidents may involve criminal responsibility, administrative responsibility, civil responsibility and disciplinary action. 1. Criminal liability: According to Article 134 of the Criminal Law of China, a serious casualty accident or other serious consequences occurs due to violation of relevant safety management regulations in production and operation, which constitutes the crime of major liability accident. According to article 1 of the Supreme People's Procuratorate's Provisions on the Criteria for Filing Crimes of Infringement on Citizens' Democratic Rights, Personal Rights and Dereliction of Duty, if one person is killed or more than three people are seriously injured, or the economic loss is more than 50,000 yuan, a case may be filed for investigation. State functionaries with supervisory responsibilities who abuse their powers or neglect their duties, thus causing heavy losses to public property and the interests of the state and the people, may be convicted and punished for dereliction of duty in accordance with the provisions of Article 397 of the Criminal Law. 2. Administrative responsibility: The directly responsible person in charge, safety production management personnel and other directly responsible personnel of the institution undertaking safety evaluation, certification, testing and inspection, the staff of the department responsible for safety production supervision and management, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel violate laws and regulations, which are not serious enough for criminal punishment, and shall bear corresponding administrative responsibilities. 3. Civil liability: According to Articles 6, 69 and 72 of the Tort Liability Law, if inflammable, explosive, toxic and other dangerous goods cause damage to people, the owner, occupier, user and manager shall bear civil liability for infringement. If the product itself has defects, the causes of the defects should be traced back. According to the provisions of Articles 4 1, 42 and 44 of the Tort Liability Law, producers, sellers, transporters and custodians should bear tort liability if they are at fault and cause product defects. If the pollutant discharged pollutes the soil, atmosphere and seawater, causing damage to the interests of the relative person, the polluter shall bear the tort liability for environmental pollution in accordance with the provisions of Article 65 of the Tort Liability Law. 4. Disciplinary action: party member and state functionaries who violate the Party discipline may be given disciplinary action alone or in combination with criminal and administrative responsibilities. According to Articles 10 and 133 of the Regulations on Disciplinary Actions, those who fail to seriously implement laws and regulations on labor protection, production safety and fire fighting, and have accidents such as explosion, fire, traffic safety, building quality and safety, mine safety, etc. and cause heavy losses, shall be given corresponding disciplinary actions. Second, the possible scope of responsibility 1, the scope of criminal responsibility is divided into two levels. According to the provisions of Article 134 of the Criminal Law, those who constitute the crime of major accidents shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention; If the circumstances are especially bad, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. In other words, the maximum legal penalty for this crime is seven years. This sentence is obviously extremely light, which is not commensurate with the particularly serious social harm caused by this incident, and is not enough to deter crimes, nor is it enough to curb the current situation of weak safety awareness and frequent vicious accidents in China. According to Article 397 of the Criminal Law, state functionaries who neglect their duties shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention; If the circumstances are especially serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years. Whoever commits the crime of favoritism and dereliction of duty shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years or criminal detention; If the circumstances are especially serious, they shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than five years but not more than ten years. 2. The specific forms and scope of administrative responsibility are varied. According to the provisions of Chapter VI of the latest Work Safety Law, which was implemented on February 65, 1965, 438+04, 65, 438+0, such administrative responsibilities include rectification within a time limit, suspension of business for rectification, fines, revocation of licenses, suspension or disqualification, etc. In the event of a particularly serious production safety accident, a fine of 80% of the income of the production and business operation entity in the previous year may be imposed. State functionaries who are responsible for the supervision of production safety may also be demoted, dismissed or dismissed in accordance with the provisions of Article 87 of the Law on Production Safety and Articles 53 and 56 of the Civil Service Law. 3. Civil liability includes property liability and personal liability. Property liability includes restitution, the same kind of compensation, discount compensation, etc. Discounts generally follow the following principles. If there is a national price, it is a national price. Only the market price, according to the existing market price; For some special items without market price, they should be sent to relevant departments for special pricing as the basis for compensation. In terms of personal injury compensation, according to Article 16 of Tort Liability Law, reasonable expenses such as medical expenses, nursing expenses, transportation expenses, and income reduced due to absenteeism should be compensated. If it causes disability, it shall also compensate the disabled for living AIDS and disability compensation. If death is caused, funeral expenses and death compensation shall also be paid. Specific calculation methods and requirements the Supreme People's Court's Interpretation of Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases has detailed special provisions, which are very convenient for readers' reference, so the swordsman will not repeat them here. 4. Disciplinary actions vary according to consequences and subjects. Article 133 of the Disciplinary Regulations stipulates that if the work of production safety violates the law and discipline, causing heavy losses, the person directly responsible shall be given a serious warning or the post within the party shall be revoked. Causing heavy losses, the person directly responsible shall be given probation or expelled from the party; Those who have the main leadership responsibilities shall be given the punishment of revoking their positions within the party or staying in the party for observation; Those who have important leadership responsibilities shall be given a warning, a serious warning or be dismissed from their posts within the party. Three. Ways and means to investigate legal responsibility 1. Responsibility investigation procedure: Major accident handling procedures can generally be divided into five stages: emergency rescue, aftermath appeasement, accident investigation, responsibility identification and personnel handling. The Tianjin explosion is still in the emergency rescue stage, and the responsibility can only be investigated after the investigation is completed and the responsibility is determined. 2. Accountability subject: The administrative department generally intervenes earlier, and it will be handed over to the judicial department only after the criminal clues are discovered. In view of the special importance of this case, it is very likely to set up a joint investigation team with multi-agency participation. Ordinary major accidents are investigated by public security organs, and accidents related to dereliction of duty are investigated by procuratorial organs. Civil compensation is directly led by the local government to come up with a compensation plan. If mediation is not possible, a civil lawsuit will be filed with the court. 3. Accepting court: According to Article 28 of the Civil Procedure Law, a lawsuit brought for infringement shall be under the jurisdiction of the people's court in the place where the infringement occurred or where the defendant was domiciled. The place of infringement includes the place where the infringement is committed and the place where the infringement result occurs. Therefore, Tianjin is generally a civil lawsuit. Unless smoke, dust, liquid, etc. If it flows to and falls into Hebei or the nearby sea area and is outside the administrative division of Tianjin, the relevant victims can sue in the place where the infringement result occurs. 4. Limitation of action: According to Articles 135 and 136 of the General Principles of Civil Law, the limitation of action for cases of damage to civil property rights is two years, and that for cases of personal injury is one year, and everyone knows or should know that their rights have been violated. Because some victims are still receiving treatment in the hospital, some may take a long time. According to Article 139 of the General Principles of the Civil Law, if a party fails to exercise his right of claim in the last six months of the limitation of action, the limitation of action will be suspended until he is discharged from the hospital. Four. Several other specific questions 1. Working hours are impaired. No matter whether you are working in Tianjin or going to Tianjin for business, as long as you are injured during your work, and whether your company has purchased work-related injury insurance or not, you can enjoy the treatment of work-related injury insurance in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 and Chapter V of the Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance. Because industrial injury insurance and civil compensation are different in nature, purpose and function, it is not contradictory to have both, and the victim can claim civil compensation from the infringer after enjoying the treatment of industrial injury. 2. If the emergency rescue is damaged and the enterprise personnel are injured in the emergency rescue, it shall be recognized as a work-related injury in accordance with Article 15 of the Regulations on Work-related Injury Insurance. According to the management of civil servants, institutions and social group work personnel work-related injuries, the expenses paid by their units. Soldiers injured or killed in the line of duty shall be handled in accordance with the regulations on pensions and preferential treatment for servicemen. 3. If an employee is injured and suffers personal injury from a major safety accident of a third-party Hairui Company during the employment period, according to the provisions of Article 1 1 of the Interpretation of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Applicable Law in the Trial of Personal Injury Compensation Cases, the employee may request the third-party Hairui Company to pay compensation, or the employer may be required to bear the liability for compensation. After the employer assumes the liability for compensation, he can claim compensation from the third party Hairui Company. 4. I bought commercial insurance, some units and individuals bought property insurance, and some individuals bought personal insurance. According to the provisions of Article 60 of the Insurance Law, if an insured accident is caused by damage to the subject matter insured by a third party, the insurer shall subrogate the insured's right to claim compensation from the third party within the amount of compensation. If the insured obtains compensation from a third party, the insurer may deduct the amount of compensation obtained by the insured from the third party. However, Article 46 of the Insurance Law stipulates that if the insured has an insured accident such as death, disability or illness due to the act of a third party, the insurer has no right to claim compensation from the third party after paying the insurance money to the insured or beneficiary, but the insured or beneficiary still has the right to claim compensation from the third party. It is worth noting that according to the provisions of Article 26 of the Insurance Law, the limitation of action for claiming compensation from the insurance company in the life insurance contract is five years. 5. Overlap of responsibilities. In the case that criminal responsibility, administrative responsibility and civil responsibility are all involved, is there an orderly division, or is it "to supplement the people with punishment" or "only to fight without punishment"? In this regard, Article 4 of the Tort Liability Law stipulates that if the infringer should bear administrative responsibility or criminal responsibility for the same act, it does not affect the tort liability according to law. If the property of the infringer is insufficient to pay for the same act, the infringer shall bear the tort liability first. This is undoubtedly conducive to protecting the relevant rights and interests of all civil subjects.