Actually, Simmons saved the $2,000,000 on the wiring. When they're getting people out of the Promenade Room, he reminds Duncan "That's not what you said to me two years ago, when you were running over-budget and out of money", then asks whether he was the only contractor whom he (Duncan) had encouraged to cut corners, winding up with, "Where did you save the other $4,000,000 in Doug's original budget?" So obviously Duncan had been aware of and soliciting many contractors to save money by any means possible...although, like Simmons's wiring, it was all technically up to code.
But there's absolutely no indication Duncan pocketed any money -- quite the contrary, he's seen as basically honest but, well, a businessman. His whole point was to save money he didn't have. Stealing from himself makes no sense.
The building was a total loss. It would have had to be torn down. And there was damage below the 81st floor -- Bigelow and Lorrie died on the 65th floor, other fires broke out elsewhere below 81, and besides, the blown water tanks flooded the entire structure, which with all the other damages made the place unsalvageable. It would be cheaper to tear down and rebuild.
Of course the building had fire insurance. It couldn't have gotten a Certificate of Occupancy without it. Besides, Duncan had to protect his investment. Not to carry insurance is not only illegal, but stupid and self-defeating. And again, there is absolutely no indication that he didn't have insurance. Duncan cut corners (or allowed others to do so), but he didn't do anything illegal. Will Giddings (Doug Roberts's aide who's the first one burned) says Simmons couldn't have swung installing inadequate (but not illegal) wiring without payoffs and kickbacks, but that didn't involve Duncan, and while Simmons may have been guilty of bribery the wiring was up to Code -- not even Roberts accused him of installing substandard equipment, only inadequate stuff.
Of course, the insurance company may have tried to get out of paying, or at least reduce its costs, by arguing that the wiring was inadequate, even if up to code. In fact, its representatives should also have inspected the work done, which probably means either they were also bribed or did a bad job. But if they could prove negligence on the part of Duncan Enterprises, they might be able to get out of paying -- depending on their own exposure.
Lawsuits on the other hand are a different matter. There would probably be pressure on the District Attorney to have Duncan, his company, its officers and responsible officials indicted for criminally negligent homicide and whatever other charges they could pile on. That aside, the civil lawsuits would be huge -- over matters ranging from the material losses of residents, injuries, emotional distress, pain and suffering, everything up to wrongful death, plus anything else they could think of. These would have totaled in the tens if not hundreds of millions. Regardless of whether anyone went to jail, Duncan Enterprises would very likely have been driven into bankruptcy and out of business by the financial impact of the civil suits.
Of course, the movie ends with Duncan and Roberts vowing "to stop this from ever happening again" (with Chief O'Halloran's help); the idea is they survive so they can work toward a safer future. But in reality there would be so much litigation, certainly civil and probably criminal, and so much money would be lost, that these guys' effectiveness or ability to effect changes would have been highly dubious.
This subject has been discussed before on this board, but it is an interesting one to consider.
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TorontoJediMaster
9 years ago
Not to mention that aside from the damage from fire and water, the wiring which started the whole incident would've had to be removed and replaced. There'd be no point in repairing the building while leaving the flawed wiring in.
Yeah, Duncan wanted to save money on the costs but he wasn't pocketing any of it. The project was obviously going over budget and he encouraged his subcontractors to save money but stay within the building code.
And, I got the impression that wiring wasn't inadequate in and of itself so much as it was inadequate for a building of that size. (i.e. If that same wiring had gone into a normal sized apartment building, hotel or office building it would've been perfectly fine and would've worked without a hitch. But, The Glass Tower clearly drew so much power that normally adequate wiring wasn't enough -it needed wiring far above normal standards.)
The insurance company probably, on initial inspection, just saw that the wiring was all up to code and issued a certificate. They probably -like Simmons- didn't appreciate that a building that size would need wiring far in excess of normal standards.
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