French Firm Seeks Consolidation of Insurer Litigation.In what may be the largest fraud litigation An action brought in court to enforce a particular right. The act or process of bringing a lawsuit in and of itself; a judicial contest; any dispute. When a person begins a civil lawsuit, the person enters into a process called litigation. in California history, attorneys representing French bank Credit Lyonnais last week filed a motion in U.S. District Court to have one of three related cases transferred from San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden to Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , where it could be consolidated with the other two cases. All three cases allege To state, recite, assert, or charge the existence of particular facts in a Pleading or an indictment; to make an allegation. allege v. that various individuals and business entities, including Credit Lyonnais, conspired to commit a multibillion-dollar fraud in acquiring defunct DEFUNCT. A term used for one that is deceased or dead. In some acts of assembly in Pennsylvania, such deceased person is called a decedent. (q.v.) Executive Life Insurance Co. in 1991. The case Credit Lyonnais is seeking to have transferred to Los Angeles was filed this summer by the state Attorney General's Office. The other primary case was filed in 1999 by the California Insurance Commission. Officials at the Attorney General's Office were not available for comment last week. But Gary Fontana, lead attorney on the insurance commission's case, characterized last week's filing as part of an ongoing attempt by defense attorneys to indefinitely in·def·i·nite adj. Not definite, especially: a. Unclear; vague. b. Lacking precise limits: an indefinite leave of absence. c. delay the cases from being consolidated and sent to trial. "Their every waking moment is spent on how to delay the trial." Fontana said. A hearing on the motion to transfer venue is scheduled for Oct. 4 in San Francisco, but that hearing would not be necessary if the Attorney General's Office agrees to the L.A. transfer. If the Oct. 4 hearing does take place, the defendants would likely use the occasion to press for a postponement of the previously scheduled Oct. 15 trial-setting hearing in Los Angeles, Fontana said. An attorney for Credit Lyonnais, Catherine A. Stone in the downtown L.A. office of White & Case, declined to comment on her firm's filing last week, or on any other aspect of the legal strategy. The filing itself asserts that the San Francisco case should be transferred to L.A. because "the actions already pending before Judge (A. Howard) Matz (in Los Angeles) involve substantially the same defendants, the same facts and common legal issues. ...In addition, the cases seek several billion dollars in damages. It would be unfair to force the defendants to litigate such massive cases in multiple forums when essentially identical allegations of wrongdoing wrong·do·er n. One who does wrong, especially morally or ethically. wrong  do are at issue."
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