Foreign Executives Can Be Compelled to Attend NJ Depositions

Foreign companies’ leaders can be forced to attend depositions in New Jersey when their American subsidiaries get sued, a state appeals court ruled Friday.

Worldwide rubber and industrial repair giant Rema Tip Top AG must produce Heinz Reiff, the chairman of the company’s supervisory board, for a deposition demanded by a worker claiming he was threatened with termination and passed over for promotion in violation of a state whistleblower protection law.

The ruling has broad implications for the roughly 1,000 foreign businesses with offices in the state, who will struggle to argue the American subsidiaries don’t have sufficient “control” over ...