District Court Denies U.K. Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss For Lack of Personal Jurisdiction
Defendants, employees of the U.K. based Marsh Services Limited, provided services to plaintiff Guy Carpenter & Company (“Guy Carpenter”) in the field of facultative reinsurance. In April 2007, the Defendants resigned from Marsh Services to join Integro, a competitor of plaintiffs. By doing so, Plaintiffs allege that defendants breached a non-solicitation provision of their contract. This contract contained two forum selection clauses.
One of the defendants, Ron Whyte, moved to dismiss on the basis that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over him and on based upon the doctrine of forum non conveniens. Whyte argued that the existence of a second forum selection clause in “Schedule II.D” of the contract created an ambiguity which rendered the forum selection clause in the body of the Agreement unenforceable. The court disagreed, denying the motion to dismiss, and holding that the forum selection clause in Schedule II.D did not apply to the issue, and was, in any event, non-exclusive. Guy Carpenter & Co. v. Julian Samengo-Turner, Ron Whyte, and Marcus Hopkins, Case No. 07 Civ. 3580 (USDC S.D. N.Y. June 29,2007).
