Asbestos Liability Wll Haunt Pfizer

The Supreme Court in June denied certiorari to Pfizer in a case that leaves the company with potentially major asbestos liability arising out of the 1968 acquisition of a company that made a product on which Pfizer’s name for a time appeared. Pfizer wanted the Court to overturn a Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that “Pfizer’s liability arises out of its sponsorship of a defective product.” In an earlier blog post the author noted that the plaintiff’s theory is that Pfizer “authorized the use of its name and trademark to be used on its subsidiary’s products that allegedly contained asbestos.” The author find this case underscores a basic principle of acquisition: “The first step in avoiding a catastrophic corporate affiliation is a clear understanding of the corporate history of the company to be acquired.”