Welcome news on the environmental front: the Supreme Court has clarified a parent company's liability for its subsidiaries' activities.(ruling on United States v Bestfoods)

From: Directors & Boards | Date: September 22, 1998| Author: | Copyright information

It is a familiar scenario: Your company is sued for cleanup costs because of contamination, allegedly caused by a subsidiary s facility. You cannot believe that a court would actually hold your company responsible for cleanup costs - after all, while your company does exercise some control over the subsidiary, it has little actual contact with the polluting facility.

Yet, prior to this summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Bestfoods, many courts would indeed have found your company liable for cleanup costs. To add insult to injury, different courts applied ...

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