Foley Mansfield Team Secures Complete Dismissal for Tech Equipment Manufacturer

A team of attorneys from Foley Mansfield’s New York office, including Carol Tempesta, Co-Managing Partner of Foley Mansfield’s New York office, and Partner Michael Tuttle, secured a complete dismissal for a large, storied, multinational, technology-equipment manufacturer in New York City Asbestos Litigation (NYCAL).

The dismissal followed the plaintiff’s voluntarily discontinuation of all claims, shortly before the matter took a trial posture. The discontinuance stemmed from a motion to dismiss based on documentary evidence drawn from international corporate, regulatory, and trademark filings. The motion demonstrated that the team’s client, whose global operations date back decades, was never a corporate-successor to the entities identified in the complaint, but rather a distinct participant in a limited foreign joint-venture that had no connection to the alleged asbestos-containing products at issue in the matter.

This result underscores the effectiveness of documentary-based challenges to successor liability claims in complex product and toxic tort litigation, particularly where historical corporate structures and cross-border business relationships are at issue. This outcome vindicates the company’s long-maintained position that its historical joint-ventures and foreign business relationships did not give rise to successor liability under New York law.

Carol Tempesta is Co-Managing Partner of Foley Mansfield’s New York office. Carol uses her two decades of litigation experience to defends small companies to Fortune 500 companies in toxic tort litigation, including asbestos and talc. She can be reached at ctempesta@foleymansfield.com.

Michael Tuttle, Partner in Foley Mansfield’s New York office, focuses his practice on the defense of toxic tort claims involving asbestos, industrial chemical exposures, environmental contamination, as well as the defense of personal injury, product manufacturer and supplier liability, corporate structure liability, and premises liability matters. He can be reached at mtuttle@foleymansfield.com.