Italian dairy food producer Parmalat said it intends to appeal after a judge granted summary judgment to Grant Thornton in a lawsuit against its former auditing firm for not doing enough to prevent the companys collapse.
The chief executive of the reorganized company and its Parmalat Capital unit had filed lawsuits against Grant Thornton LLP and Grant Thornton International, as well as Bank of America. However, last Friday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan tossed out the lawsuits, dismissing the claims on the ground of in pari delicto, or that the parties were at equal fault. Parmalat said in a statement that it believes this decision is erroneous and intends to appeal.
The company did not say whether it would appeal the dismissal of its lawsuit against Bank of America. Parmalat settled another lawsuit with the bank in July for $98.5 million.
Parmalat collapsed in 2003 and filed for bankruptcy after it admitted to being in debt for about $18 billion and having about a $5 billion hole in its financial statements. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2005.
