She sued the wrong company first - and lost. A court just reopened the door
A failed lawsuit against a company's foreign parent doesn't block the same worker from suing its US subsidiary, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court's dismissal on August 28, 2026, allowing a worker's discrimination case to proceed against Mastronardi Produce-USA, the US subsidiary of a Canadian produce company.
The worker alleged race and gender discrimination, harassment, and retaliation during her employment at a Mastronardi facility in Livonia, Michigan. The court did not decide whether any of that happened. It answered a narrower question: whether her earlier, unsuccessful lawsuit against the parent company barred her from suing the subsidiary.
She had sued twice on the same facts. She first named the Canadian parent, Mastronardi Produce, Ltd., arguing it was her employer. The company produced W-2 forms showing the US subsidiary paid her, and a district court agreed the parent was not her employer. Just before that ruling issued, she sued the subsidiary on nearly identical facts, adding a hostile work environment claim under Michigan law.
The subsidiary moved to dismiss. It argued the worker had already had a full chance to litigate against a related company, pointing to shared ownership, shared defense counsel, and a shared corporate officer who had filed a declaration in the first case. The district court agreed and dismissed the suit,...
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