A federal judge has granted USI Holdings Corporation a new trial following a $16.6 million judgment against it for alleged copyright infringement.

Judge Harvey Bartle III, sitting in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, granted the Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., insurance broker a new trial last week citing issues with the damage award and statute of limitations.

In June, a jury found the USI subsidiary, USI MidAltantci, Inc., and one of its employees, Thomas P. Haughey, used copyrighted material of the William A. Graham Company, based in Philadelphia, a rival insurance brokerage firm Mr. Haughey formerly worked at.

Mr. Haughey allegedly used copyrighted proposal materials from the Graham Company for his clients after leaving Graham.

A jury found USI would have to pay $16.6 million and Mr. Haughey would pay $2.2 million for the copyright infringement.

On Nov. 21, Mr. Bartle ordered a new trial. In his order, the judge ruled that Graham Company should have sought to know earlier than it did that Haughey and the firm Flanigan, O'Hara & Gentry (FOG), which was acquired by USI in the mid-1990's, was using its material.

Graham did not discover the use of the materials until 2003, but Haughey and his firm allegedly used the materials going back to 1991, after he left Graham to join FOG.

Mr. Bartle granted the new trail, noting that the award is "inextricably bound with the question of the application of the statute of limitations."

USI said the effect of the court's ruling vacated the jury's entire damage award. The firm said its subsidiary and Mr. Haughey intend "to pursue the opportunity for a new trial on damages and statute of limitations issues afforded them by the court and, if necessary thereafter, an appeal."

Special Reports /

USI Gets New Trial In $16M Judgment

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