If the two companies agree to the proposed terms, other tobacco companies could strike similar agreements to avoid the damage that could be caused by the Florida case.
He also wants to avoid the damage done to public safety when immigration enforcement is indiscriminate, and when deportation decisions are, in effect, delegated to the local police.
They also mixed concrete in buckets, rather than using a mixing truck, Mr. de Santiesteban said, and used small building cranes to avoid the damage to the foliage that would have been done by large ones.
There's little doubt that extracting admissions of wrongdoing gives the S.E.C. enormous new leverage, and not just because defendants want to avoid the damage to their reputation that comes with admitting misconduct.
The carrier is relieved from liability if he proves that he had taken all the necessary measures to avoid the damage or that it was impossible for him to take such measures.
To try to avoid the damage that such an exodus could do to production, BP led an industry effort to develop a two-year training program, called the Alaska Process Industries Consortium, at the University of Alaska campuses in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Kenai.
