September 7, 2007
On August 31, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissed a significant portion of a class action suit brought against dozens of insurance brokers and carriers, including Willkie client Marsh & McLennan, the world’s largest insurance broker. Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. tossed out antitrust claims brought by over three dozen commercial lines clients, alleging that the brokers conspired to allocate clients, fix prices and restrain trade in violation of the Sherman Act. This marks the third time the Court has rejected the plaintiffs’ conspiracy claims. The last dismissal was ordered last April, at which time the judge permitted the plaintiffs the opportunity to amend their filings and enhance their case with supplemental pleadings.
In the current dismissal, the judge wrote that “The adoption of similar disclosure policies and the opportunity to collude through various industry methods is not enough to infer that such a large group of participants engaged in a conspiracy.” The judge continued, “Plaintiffs have not shown that the insurer defendants colluded among themselves in the broker-centered conspiracies, and thus it is improbable that they colluded to further this global agreement as well.”
This Multidistrict Class Action Litigation arose out of the New York Attorney General’s investigation of the insurance industry. A decision in the RICO portion of the suit is still pending. The case is being handled by partners Mitchell Auslander, Bernard Nigro, John Oller, William Rooney, and Theodore Whitehouse; and associate Amy Fitzpatrick.
