Henkel Corp. v. Hartford Acc. and Indem. Co.

This case arises out of the Lockheed mass tort litigation in which employees of Lockheed sought recovery for bodily injuries caused by exposure to toxic chemical products during the course of their employment (hereafter, the Lockheed litigation). Joined as defendants in this litigation were a number of companies which had supplied such chemical products to Lockheed. In the matter before us, a successor corporation which had been sued for such bodily injuries allegedly arising from the predecessor corporation's chemical products business, seeks defense and indemnity benefits under the predecessor's liability insurance policies. Under circumstances where the predecessor effectively ceased to exist, the successor corporation had acquired all of the assets of the predecessor and had expressly assumed all of its liabilities; however, the predecessor's insurance policies had not been assigned to the successor. [1]

We are presented with the question as to whether the successor corporation is nonetheless entitled to the policy benefits of defense and indemnity as to those claims arising from bodily injuries that allegedly occurred prior to the transfer of the business to the…