A team of litigators from Debvoise & Plimpton last week shut down $14.5 billion qui tam suit against insurance and financial services providers Prudential, John Hancock, AXA, Guardian, MassMutual and TIAA in New York state court.

In what the firm called “a total victory” for its clients, Justice Andrea Masley of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York dismissed the qui tam suit with prejudice and denied the plaintiff's request to re-plead.

Suing under New York False Claims Act, plaintiff-relator Total Asset Recovery Services alleged that the companies knowingly failed to report and escheat abandoned life insurance policy proceeds.

The original complaint was filed under seal in December of 2010. The New York Attorney General's office investigated the claims for several years but declined to intervene.

In an April 3 opinion, Justice Masley demolished the suit. The plaintiff “fails to (1) identify facts specifically relating to defendants and their fraudulent conduct (2) identify the specific false reports that were submitted by defendants to the state (3) allege facts establishing that defendants knew that they submitted false unclaimed property reports to the state.”

The Debevoise team was led by partners Maeve O'Connor, Susan Reagan Gittes and Ed Schallert, associates Brooke Willig, Matt Sorensen and Kate Walsh, and litigation support team member Steve Horner. Schallert and O'Connor along with partner Mark Goodman also led the matters for various clients in the related years-long NYAG investigation.