On February 17, 2009, in a summary order issued by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, two separate teams of DPW lawyers won appeals in two related Parmalat litigations on behalf of clients Deloitte & Touche LLP (Deloitte US) and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro S.p.A. (BNL).

In early 2006, two U.S. subsidiaries of Parmalat-Italy, Farmland Dairies and Parmalat USA, through their Litigation Trustee and Bankruptcy Plan Administrator, brought suit against Deloitte US, BNL and others asserting fraud, negligence and other claims arising out of the collapse of Parmalat-Italy and its U.S. subsidiaries' subsequent bankruptcies. The complaints focused on Deloitte US, arguing that Deloitte US was responsible for damages sustained by Farmland Dairies when $100 million in loan proceeds it obtained from General Electric Capital Corporation (GECC) in a sale-leaseback transaction were subsequently looted by insiders at Parmalat in Italy. Deloitte US allegedly caused the loss by (1) overstating the value of the Farmland Dairies assets sold to GECC; and (2) negligently auditing Parmalat USA’s financial statements. Additional claims against BNL and other defendants alleged that they had participated in transactions in Italy that caused Parmalat-Italy's consolidated financial statements to be grossly misstated, which led Parmalat USA’s innocent decision-makers to rely on the financial health of Parmalat-Italy in entering into the sale-leaseback transaction.

In August 2007, Judge Lewis Kaplan dismissed the Second Amended Complaints, holding with respect to Deloitte US that plaintiffs could not state a claim in the absence of allegations that Deloitte US knew or could have reasonably foreseen that the proceeds of the sale-leaseback would be looted by insiders at Parmalat-Italy. In addition, Judge Kaplan found that allegations of common law vicarious liability were not sufficient to impute alleged knowledge of looting from Deloitte-Italy to Deloitte US. Judge Kaplan dismissed the claims against BNL and the other defendants in the absence of allegations that they had any connection to Parmalat's U.S. subsidiaries or even knew about the sale-leaseback transaction, let alone the alleged looting. Judge Kaplan also denied plaintiffs’ motions to reopen the judgments and for leave to file Third Amended Complaints.

Plaintiffs appealed most of the key holdings of the district court. The appeal was argued on February 11, 2009, and the summary order followed two business days later affirming the district court “substantially for the reasons stated by Judge Kaplan in his careful and thoughtful opinion.”

The Davis Polk team for Deloitte US, in the district court and on appeal, includes partners Sharon Katz (who argued the appeal) and Daniel F. Kolb, counsel Lynn Earl Busath and David B. Toscano, associate Samuel I. Portnoy, former associate Patti Stuckler Lubin, legal assistant Christina Chang and former legal assistant Kaitlin Harvie. The Davis Polk team for BNL (which rested on its brief in the Second Circuit) includes partner Dennis E. Glazer, counsel Nancy B. Ludmerer and associate Ian R. Rooney, who were assisted at the district court by associates George Sirignano, Antoinette Greenaway Ellison, Jennifer A. Ain and former associate Christine Coogan. All members of both Davis Polk teams are based in the New York office.