Former director accused of soliciting clients from insurer settles out of court

A High Court case involving a Dublin insurance executive accused of soliciting clients to move with him to a new firm was settled yesterday as it was due to open.

The settlement was for a total of €725,000, damages and costs, in a case where damages of €2.8 million were being sought.

Eamon Cummins, formerly a director of US multinational the Willis Group, strongly rebutted the claims made against him by his former employers.

Willis, which last year acquired Dublin broker Coyle Hamilton, was seeking damages from Mr Cummins arising from the circumstances in which he left the Willis Group in 2001 and joined Integrated Risk Solutions (IRS), a competitor insurance consultancy business.

It was not clear last night how much of the €725,000 settlement comprised costs and how much comprised damages, with a source close to Willis saying the bulk was damages and a source on the IRS side saying the opposite.

Willis was alleging breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract. It said that the €2.8 million was to compensate for loss of profits from former clients who had moved to IRS, basing the figure on profits that might have been earned in the period up to 2014.

The US multinational alleged that Mr Cummins's contract precluded him from dealing with Willis clients for up to 12 months after he left the company. Mr Cummins argued that the clients came to him after he had left Willis.

Mr Cummins specialises in the provision of health and safety advice to clients, whether it concerns building sites, office space, or public auditoriums.

In the case, he was to say that he had been approached and asked to join IRS, which he did, and that some Willis clients subsequently sought services from him.

A source close to IRS said the lost profits from former Willis clients being alleged by Willis for 2002 was €30,000. "It was very small beer. Willis lost about nine or 10 of their hundreds of clients."

He said contracts with clients would not be continuing contracts but would be job specific.

Willis, in a statement, said it had issued proceedings against Mr Cummins for "breach of fiduciary duty and breach of trust and confidence as a managing director and as an employee relative to his establishing a competitor firm and soliciting Willis clients and employees while he himself was still employed by Willis.

"The company also issued proceedings against IRS, the company Mr Cummins became a managing director and employee of. The case was due to be heard in the High Court today, but Mr Cummins and IRS have now agreed to pay a substantial sum in full and final settlement of the claim."

The company made a profit of €76,492 in the year to end-April 2004, according to its most recent set of accounts.