Judge Denies Aon's Appeal Of $10 Million Jury Verdict.

A $10 million jury award in favor of former professional football player Phil McConkey stands after Aon Corp.'s appeal was denied by New Jersey Superior Court Judge Kenneth Stein.

Aon had sought a directed verdict, in which a judge overturns a jury verdict if the facts in law don't warrant the jury's decision. In McConkey's case, the jury found that Alexander & Alexander, a brokerage and consulting firm, had misled McConkey when it recruited him in April 1996 by denying that it was an acquisition candidate. Chicago-based Aon acquired A&A the following December and fired McConkey in March 1997.

The six-person jury awarded McConkey $5 million in punitive damages, $3 million for lost wages and $2 million for emotional distress.

Aon attorney Davis Carr said he would file another motion to have the judge set aside the entire verdict and a motion to reduce damages.

Carr had argued that the case shouldn't have been decided by a jury because McConkey's counsel "turned a wrongful-termination case into a fraud case," Carr said.

McConkey's attorney, Neil Mullin of Smith Mullin in Montclair, N.J., called the case a matter of "truth in hiring." He said the decision was likely to affect middle-level and management recruitment across the country.

At the trial, Mullin produced a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission showing that A&A had discussions with Aon from January to May 1996 about a possible deal, including an outright sale to Aon.

Similar truth-in-hiring cases have been successfully prosecuted in Maine, New Jersey and California. "We'll see a lot more of them because of the growth of the executive-recruiting industry and the increasingly rapid turnover of jobs due to reorganizations," Mullin said. "Executive recruiters will be called upon to answer questions honestly and fully."

McConkey left Ross & Co., an insurance broker in Fairfield, N.J., to take the job with A&A. His question about whether A&A was likely to be acquired was "a very thoughtful inquiry," Mullin has said, because when companies merge, redundancies are created, and it was reasonable to believe his new job could be at risk.

Carr said the judge's ruling surprised him.

"If you look at specific numbers and calculate past loss and future losses, you can't figure out how they got there," Carr said.

If Aon loses the next set of motions, the company could appeal to state Superior Court, Appellate Division. Mullin said appeals normally take one to two years to reach resolution, and Aon would have to post a $10 million bond with the court.

McConkey played in the National Football League with the New York Giants and Green Bay Packers as a wide receiver and kick returner.