Sterling v. Interlake Industries Inc.

154 F.R.D. 579, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5573, 1994 WL 158809
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedApril 8, 1994
DocketNo. CV 93-2287 (ADS)
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 154 F.R.D. 579 (Sterling v. Interlake Industries Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sterling v. Interlake Industries Inc., 154 F.R.D. 579, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5573, 1994 WL 158809 (E.D.N.Y. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

SPATT, District Judge:

This case involves a products liability action, removed from the New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County to this Court on the basis of diversity jurisdiction. The defendant and third-party plaintiff Interlake Companies, Inc.. (“Interlake Co.”), improperly designated in the caption as “Interlake Industries Inc.”, moves pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(b) for summary judgment in its favor to dismiss the Complaint as against it, because the plaintiff allegedly has brought this action against the wrong defendant. The plaintiff opposes the defendant’s motion on the ground that the defendant is estopped from raising its defenses.

In the event the Court grants the defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff moves, in the alternative, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(c) to amend her Complaint a second time, in order to name the proper defendant.

BACKGROUND

The plaintiff Donna Sterling alleges that she was injured on July 12, 1990, when a certain metal storage rack collapsed and fell on her while she was working on the premises of her employer, the third-party defendant Consumers Distributing, Inc. (“Consumers”) located at 655 Montauk Highway, North Babylon, New York. ' Initially, the plaintiff alleged that the storage rack at issue was manufactured and distributed by Interlake Industries Inc. The defendant Store Dynamics Corp. (“Store”) sold the rack to Consumers on August 26, 1985, and the defendant Noeller Industries (“Noeller”) installed the storage rack. Noeller and Store have yet to appear or file an answer in this action.

On March 23, 1993 Sterling commenced a personal injury action against Interlake Industries Inc. in the New York State Supreme Court, Nassau County. The case was removed to this Court on May 20, 1993 by the defendant Interlake Co. Sterling served an amended Complaint the next day. Interlake Co. commenced a third-party action against Consumers on May 27, 1993 and filed an amended answer on June 14, 1993.

The amended Complaint alleges that Inter-lake Industries Inc. negligently designed, manufactured, produced and distributed the storage rack which caused the plaintiffs injuries, and sets forth causes of action for negligence and strict products liability against Interlake Industries Inc., as well as the other defendants.

[582]*582MOTIONS BEFORE THE COURT

1. Interlake Co.’s Motion for Summary Judgment.

Interlake Co. moves for summary judgment to dismiss the Complaint as against it, because Interlake Co. contends it neither designed, manufactured, produced or distributed the metal storage rack at issue. Rather, Interlake Co. claims that the storage rack was manufactured and distributed by Redirack Interlake Storage Products, Inc. (“Redirack”). Redirack was a wholly owned Canadian subsidiary of Interlake Co.’s corporate predecessor, which was dissolved in 1991.

According to Interlake Co. the named defendant in this case, Interlake Industries Inc., was a subsidiary of Interlake Incorporated, and dissolved in 1977. Interlake Incorporated had many other subsidiaries, one of which was Redirack. In 1990, Interlake Incorporated was merged into the Acme Steel Company, and all of its subsidiaries, including Redirack, became subsidiaries of a new company, Interlake Co., the defendant/third-party plaintiff here and movant. Interlake Co. and Acme Steel Company in turn, became wholly owned subsidiaries of a new parent holding company, The Interlake Corporation. On December 30, 1991, Redirack was amalgamated into Acme Strapping Inc. (“Acme Strapping”), a Canadian corporation in which Interlake Co. owns a minority share and Interlake Packaging Corporation owns a majority share. Interlake Packaging Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Inter-lake Co. Section 14(c) of the Amalgamation Agreement between Acme Strapping and Redirack, which has been submitted by Inter-lake Co. as Exhibit “G” attached to the affidavit accompanying its notice of motion, provides that Acme Strapping assumed all of the corporate liabilities of Redirack. Upon the amalgamation, Redirack was dissolved.

Interlake Co. (hereafter “Interlake”, unless otherwise indicated) contends that Redirack—and Acme Strapping as its successor— is the proper defendant in this case, because Redirack manufactured and distributed the storage rack that allegedly collapsed and injured the plaintiff. To support its contentions, Interlake has submitted, among other documents, the affidavits of an Interlake company engineer who inspected the rack at Consumers on August 20,1993, together with counsel for the plaintiff and Consumers. The engineer’s affidavit includes pictures of the rack with a decal on it indicating it was made by Redirack. Moreover, after discussing the rack with two former sales and marketing officials of Redirack, the engineer states that he and the former Redirack officials agree that the rack was manufactured by Redirack, and is known as a “QA Rack” (Quick Assembly Rack). This contention is corroborated by the affidavits of the two former Redirack officials.

In addition to this affidavit, Interlake has submitted copies of the bill of sale by the defendant Store to Consumers documenting the sale of the rack, and the invoice by the defendant Noeller documenting the installation costs of the racks.

Interlake also contends that as the corporate parent of Redirack, it cannot be held responsible for the plaintiffs injuries in this case under any theory of liability, because Redirack and Interlake were separate and independent corporations. At the time of the alleged accident in 1990, Redirack was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Redirack Holdings Ltd., which in turn was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Interlake. Interlake asserts that it never exerted any control over the day-to-day business operations of Redirack— a company two levels down in the corporate ladder—that would warrant piercing the corporate veil to reach Interlake.

According to the affidavits of the controller for Interlake and the former vice-president and controller for Redirack, the independence of Interlake from its former subsidiary is evidenced by the following: (1) Redirack maintained separate corporate formalities from Interlake, including separate minute books, issuance of stock, corporate elections, and corporate records; (2) Redirack was always adequately capitalized, and never transferred money to Interlake for Interlake’s own benefit; (3) Redirack officials made the day-to-day business and financial decisions of the company, and negotiated its own contracts; (4) even though certain officers of Interlake would be appointed Redirack officers, such officers and managers were not [583]*583controlled by Interlake officers; (5) Redirack maintained separate offices, equipment and manufacturing facilities from Interlake; (5) Redirack designed and produced its own line of racks and products, and marketed these to its own customers; (6) Redirack filed its own tax returns; and (7) Interlake did not sell raw rolled steel to Redirack at favorable prices.

Based on the affidavits and other documents submitted to support its position, Interlake argues it is entitled to summary judgment dismissing the Complaint against it as a matter of law because it did not manufacture or distribute the QA Rack, and is not vicariously liable for Redirack’s actions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 F.R.D. 579, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5573, 1994 WL 158809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sterling-v-interlake-industries-inc-nyed-1994.