Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S. 764, 15 (1993)

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778

HARTFORD FIRE INS. CO. v. CALIFORNIA

Opinion of the Court

sion wherever legal and applicable.' " Id., at 35 (Cal. Complaint ¶ 108).6

C

Nineteen States and a number of private plaintiffs filed 36 complaints against the insurers involved in this course of events, charging that the conspiracies described above violated § 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U. S. C. § 1. After the actions had been consolidated for litigation in the Northern District of California, the defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a cause of action, or, in the alternative, for summary judgment. The District Court granted the motions to dismiss. In re Insurance Antitrust Litigation, 723 F. Supp. 464 (1989). It held that the conduct alleged fell within the grant of antitrust immunity contained in § 2(b) of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 15 U. S. C. § 1012(b), because it amounted to "the business of insurance" and was "regulated by State Law" within the meaning of that section; none of the conduct, in the District Court's view, amounted to a "boycott" within the meaning of the § 3(b) exception to that grant of immunity. 15 U. S. C. § 1013(b). The District Court also dismissed the three claims that named only certain London-based defendants,7 invoking international comity and applying the Ninth Circuit's decision in Timberlane Lumber Co. v. Bank of America, N. T. & S. A., 549 F. 2d 597 (1976).

The Court of Appeals reversed. In re Insurance Antitrust Litigation, 938 F. 2d 919 (CA9 1991). Although it held the conduct involved to be "the business of insurance" within the meaning of § 2(b), it concluded that the defendants could

6 The Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Claims for Relief in the California Complaint, id., at 49-50 (¶¶ 151-156), and the Seventh Claim for Relief in the Connecticut Complaint, id., at 98 (¶¶ 145-146), allege state-law violations not at issue here.

7 These are the Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Claims for Relief in the California Complaint, and the corresponding Third, Fourth, and Fifth Claims for Relief in the Connecticut Complaint.

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