Delaware Business Litigation Report

Supreme Court Reinvigorates Istituto Bancario

Matthew v. Flakt Woods Group SA, No. 150, 2012 ( November 20, 2012)

For some time the conspiracy theory of jurisdiction, first set out in the famous Istituto Bancario decision, has had little success in conferring jurisdiction over foreign entities.  With this new decision by the Delaware Supreme Court, that trend may be reversed.  The key holding is that the defendant should have known that it was involved with a Delaware corporation and  the dissolution of that company as part of the alleged conspiracy was enough to give jurisdiction over the non-US defendant.  While the parameters of this possible extension of jurisdiction are to be determined later, it may be very broad.

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