After five weeks of testimony and another day of summation, a San Bernardino County jury had heard enough. After just three hours of deliberation over two days, the panelists came back with a verdict in favor of the defense-- State Compensation Insurance Fund.

The key questions before the panel were whether SCIF owed one of its brokers Cumbre Inc. a right to fair procedure and whether its decision in 2003 to terminate Cumbre as part of a purge of 140 brokers statewide was rationale. In the eyes of the jury it was.

"The jury’s verdict recognizes that State Fund acted responsibly in complying with regulators’ concerns over the challenges that were created following the collapse of more than 25 private carriers, when State Fund’s premium grew dramatically," State Fund's PR department noted after the decision was handed down. Andre Cronthall, SCIF's attorney from Sheppard Mullin, was not available for comment.

For more details on the case, see our earlier story here.

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