THE PRODUCT LIABILITY RESPONSIBILITIES OF SUCCESSOR CORPORATIONS

The liability of firms that merge with, take over the assets of, or ac quire the products of other companies is governed by the terms of the asset purchase agreement and the behavior of the firms subsequent to t he agreement. Here, the authors review, these two aspects of mergers a nd acquisitions and discuss the public policy and managerial implicati ons of holding successor firms liable. The authors show that courts re cently have expanded corporate liability under two of the six approach es available for making organizations take responsibility for injuries associated with the predecessor firm's products.