In a 94 page opinion, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the approval of the class settlement of certain consolidated cases of alleged insurance brokerage antitrust litigation arising from the New York Attorney General “bid-rigging” investigation in 2004. The district court approved proposed settlements involving the Zurich-affiliate defendants (see prior post dated March 5, 2007) and the Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.-affiliate defendants (see prior posts dated September 25, 2007 and October 15, 2007), and denied the objections to the proposed settlements. The objectors to the Zurich settlement challenged the attorneys fee award to class counsel as based on improper inclusion of work done on other non-settled aspects of related litigation, failure to properly account for work done on behalf of the public by attorneys general involved in the litigation, class counsel’s performance of its gatekeeper function, and the overall amount of the fees, which totaled approximately $29,000,000. The objectors to the Gallagher settlement challenged the amount of the settlement, the requirements of the proposed claim form, the allocation of settlement funds, and whether the requirements of class certification were met. The Third Circuit Court affirmed the district court’s approval of both settlements and the attorneys fee award in the Zurich settlement, and affirmed the denial of each of the objections. In re Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation, Nos. 07-1759 et al (3d Cir. Sept. 8, 2009).
This post written by John Pitblado.