State ex rel. Stein v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co.

Summary

The court held that due process permits North Carolina courts to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over out-of-state corporate successors by imputing the predecessor's contacts and liabilities when North Carolina law would impose those liabilities on the successors. That rule applied because the successors expressly assumed Old DuPont's PFAS liabilities and the State sufficiently alleged a fraudulent asset-transfer scheme. The court declined to decide whether direct jurisdiction existed under the effects-based theory because imputed jurisdiction independently supported jurisdiction over all related claims.