COURT DISMISSES EX-MARSH EXECUTIVE'S LIBEL SUIT

US District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan has dismissed the defamation lawsuit that former Marsh executive William Gilman filed against former New York attorney general and governor Eliot Spitzer for a 2010 article that Mr Spitzer wrote for online magazine Slate about his 2004-2005 investigation into bid-rigging by Marsh and major commercial insurers, Bloomberg reported at the weekend. Saying that he would outline his reasons for the dismissal in a future memorandum, Judge Oetken also dismissed Mr Spitzer's counterclaim that Mr Gilman's lawsuit violated a New York state law barring "strategic lawsuits against public participation", or SLAPPs. Mr Spitzer had written the article in Slate following a Wall Street Journal editorial that criticized his bid-rigging investigation and lawsuit against Marsh. In the article, he repeated earlier accusations that Marsh executives had "pocketed" increased fees and kickbacks as part of the bid-rigging scheme and noted that Marsh had paid $850m in restitution to clients as a result of the probe. In the lawsuit that Mr Spitzer filed as attorney general, Mr Gilman and former colleague Edward McNenney were found guilty of a single count of restraint of trade and competition, but New York Supreme Court Justice James Yates tossed the verdict after finding that prosecutors had failed to share some evidence with defense lawyers.