DuPont has settled the $745 million lawsuit brought against it by Invista over safety and environmental problems at plants once owned by the large chemical company.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed in a joint statement from the companies.
DuPont sold its Invista business (formerly DuPont Textiles & Interiors) to Koch Industries for $4.2 billion in 2004. Invista was sold as a globally integrated fibre and intermediates business with a presence in 50 countries and comprised of six businesses: Apparel, Performance Fibers, Interiors, Intermediates, Polymer and Resins and Textile Fibers. It also included many of DuPont’s famous brands including Lycra, Stainmaster, Antron, Coolmax, Thermolite, Cordura, Supplex and Tactel.
DuPont remains a key player in nonwovens and technical textiles, through brands including Kevlar, Tyvek, Nomex and Sontara.
Four years after the sale of Invista, Koch sued to recover cleanup costs at some of the facilities transferred, accusing DuPont of misleading it about health and safety conditions.
DuPont had countered that it was not responsible to cover cleanup costs because Invista had violated contractual terms relating to environmental indemnification.
In April 2009, the US Department of Justice said Invista agreed to pay a $1.7 million civil fine and spend up to $500 million to correct environmental problems at plants in seven US states.
Invista had earlier disclosed more than 680 regulatory violations to the Environmental Protection Agency after auditing 12 facilities it had bought from DuPont.
