31 March 2017Insurance

Alliant prevails in employee "raid" lawsuit by rival Aon

A California jury has dismissed the poaching claims made by re/insurance broker Aon, and ruled in favour of insurance brokerage firm Alliant Insurance Services.

The jury delivered its verdict on March 22, rejecting Aon's claim against Alliant and ten former Aon employees, including "breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, breach of loyalty, intentional interference with contracts, and misappropriation of trade secrets."

The case arose in 2014 when ten producers followed by other employees from Aon's Fresno, Salinas, and Walnut Creek offices left the company to join rival Alliant Insurance Services.

According to a statement by California-based Alliant, Aon argued the departures were a "raid" orchestrated by a conspiracy, however, later dropped half of its claims. The Fresno jury ruled in favour of Alliant and rejected Aon’s remaining claims after less than five hours of deliberation, the company added.

After hearings in both California and New York courts, Alliant already prevailed when a New York court rejected Aon’s request for injunctive relief and stated that California law applied to the dispute, followed by the California court’s 2015 ruling that Aon’s non-compete agreements were unenforceable under California law.

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More on this story

Insurance
3 March 2017   Brown & Brown, a provider of re/insurance products, has settled its lawsuit against a number of its former employees, their current employer AssuredPartners and several key executives within the rival firm.
Insurance
19 December 2017   Broker Arthur J Gallagher and Alliant have settled a dispute over Gallagher employees hired by intermediary services provider Alliant.
Insurance
17 May 2023   Aon accuses Alliant of poaching 32% of fac reinsurance group and ‘attacking on all levels’.