Parmalat, the newly restructured Italian dairy company, can be sued by shareholders seeking damages against its bankrupt predecessor, a US court has ruled.

A federal judge denied a request by Parmalat to dismiss a lawsuit brought by shareholders seeking to recover billions of dollars in claims against the original company that collapsed into bankruptcy amid a giant accounting scandal in 2003.

Parmalat said that it planned to appeal against the ruling.

Judge Lewis Kaplan, sitting in the US District Court in Manhattan, said he found that under Italian law the new Parmalat inherited the liabilities of the previous entity.

The reorganised dairy corporation had sought to have the investor claims dismissed.

It argued that any fraud had been committed by the previous company and that the new entity could not be held liable.

In a 30-page ruling in favour of disgruntled investors, the judge said that one company may be held liable for the acts of a predecessor when certain conditions are met, which is the case with Parmalat.

The new company argued that it was being asked to bear more responsibility than it agreed to undertake, but the judge found that the investors were seeking to hold the new Parmalat only to the terms of a 2005 restructuring plan.

In a statement released yesterday, Parmalat said that it disagreed with the judge's decision, adding that the ruling contradicted the opinion of Italian courts.

Parmalat filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2004, revealing that its debt was eight times higher than it had previously claimed.

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