Successor liability is a well-established doctrine that can be used in certain circumstances to extend liability to a party who may otherwise be far removed from the allegedly offending conduct or defective product alleged to have caused injury.
In some areas, such as asbestos personal injury litigation, successor liability claims are commonplace, and are asserted against a large number of companies that had no direct involvement with asbestos in their corporate history. Rather, it is argued that such defendants should be held liable for the acts of another company (probably now long gone) because of some past relationship or prior corporate transaction.
