Re:3M Heads to Trial in ‘Existential’ $143B Forever-Chemical...
by s1artibartfast on Friday June 09, 2023 @04:24PM
(#36263677)
I am not a lawyer, but here is a decent summary [1]. The legal term you would be looking for is "successor liability".
Liability can be servered from a operational buisness unit, but it basically requires the court intervention to formalize the seperation. Liability follows the functional business so that sale can't be used to evade liability.
Imagine if this wasnt the case. 3M could take on 100B debt, sell the bussness & assets to "4M" , leaving "3M" with no funds or assets for the creditors to go after.
https://www.ballardspahr.com/insights/alerts-and-articles/20....
It seems reasonable to me that you could absolutely purchase a business unit from a bankrupt company without any associated liabilities. Of course, you'd pay the full price for it (as compared to the discount you'd be able to negotiate if you accepted liabilities). And, of course, the proceeds of the sale would go to the creditors before the shareholders.