The legal squabble between American International Group (AIG) and a startup-up formed by some former employees continued this week with another filing from Dellwood Insurance Group in support of its motion to dismiss AIG’s claims.
Dellwood, in a U.S. District Court in New Jersey filing, said AIG “may not claim a monopoly on the experience and general knowledge of [Dellwood’s] employees” and it also can’t prevent Dellwood from doing business by “throwing around its weight with ginned-up claims” especially after dropping claims against three of its executives—all former AIG employees.
AIG in April originally sued Dellwood and it’s founders Michael Price, Kean Driscoll and Thomas Connolly for misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, breaches of contracts, and unfair competition shortly after Dellwood launched with more than $250 million in capital and backed by RenaissanceRe, PartnerRe, Starr Insurance, Central Insurance, and a group of individual investors for wholesale brokers in the small- and middle-enterprise E&S market.
Dellwood, AIG has alleged, used business strategies and trade secrets to form and compete against AIG’s E&S companies.
AIG then dropped then former executives from the lawsuit but an amended complaint continued to name Dellwood Insurance. Since, AIG and Dellwood have fired back and forth over whether the suit can proceed. Dellwood has said a legal doctrine called res judicata prevents AIG from making the same allegations against the company as it did against its individual former employees. AIG said the doctrine is only applied to subsequent cases, not to bar claims in the same case. AIG called Dellwood’s arguments “quixotic.”
Related: In Latest Salvo AIG Says its Former Execs at Dellwood Are ‘Bad Leavers’
In the latest filing, Dellwood reasserts what it called a “basic and well-supported principle that there can be no secondary liability without primary liability.” By dismissing the claims against Price, Driscoll, and Connolly, AIG cannot sue Dellwood, the company said.
“The with-prejudice dismissal of the individuals is a finding of no liability on the merits,” Dellwood said in the filing “If the Individuals are not liable, Dellwood’s actions through those Individuals cannot be a basis for liability and AIG’s first amended complaint should be dismissed in its entirety.”
Dellwood added that AIG’s last filing was absent of court precedent, and instead relied on “soundbites to deflect from an indisputable reality” that it is prevented from continuing with the litigation against Dellwood.
The case is American International Group Inc. v. Dellwood Insurance Group, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, No. 24-04456.
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