Chemours Lawsuit Over Liability From DuPont Spinoff Tossed
- Judge concluded that separation agreement requires arbitration
- Chemours accused DuPont of unfairly dumping liabilities on it
Chemours Co. must use arbitration to resolve a dispute with former parent DuPont de Nemours Inc. over environmental liabilities shifted to the spin-off when the chemical makers were separated in 2015, a judge ruled.
Delaware Chancery Court Judge Sam Glasscock III concluded a valid arbitration clause in the separation agreement mandated that all disputes were to be heard outside the regular courts. Chemours argued the arbitration provisions were so onerous they shouldn’t be enforced and DuPont’s estimates of how much its former unit should cover were “spectacularly wrong.”
The decision means Chemours may have to take on more of the financial burden for clean-up demands tied to DuPont products such as PFOA, a cancer-linked chemical formerly used to make Teflon nonstick coatings and other products. Chemours also is being asked to indemnify DuPont for other environmental claims.