In an action alleging fraud in connection with the demutualization of defendant life insurance company, disqualification of defense counsel on the ground that it represented defendant in the underlying demutualization is reversed where: 1) the firm did not have an attorney-client relationship with the policyholders by virtue of its representation of defendant in the transaction; and 2) plaintiffs failed to establish that the purported violation of the witness-advocate rule in this case would warrant disqualification.
Read Murray v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., No. 09-3716
Appellate Information
Argued: September 3, 2009
Decided: September 29, 2009
Judges
Opinion by Judge Jacobs
Counsel
For Appellants:
Teresa Wynn Roseborough, Kevin S. Finnegan and Duncan J. Logan, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY
For Appellees:
Jared B. Starnell and John C. Crow, Stamell & Schager, LLP, New York, NY
