Efforts to negotiate an out-of-court settlement on a breach-of-contract dispute between the Arthur J Gallagher insurance broking group and three former executives who handled the accounts of many top US shipowners have failed.

A legal battle between Gallagher and the former employees has been on hold for some time to allow “substantive settlement discussions” to take place.

But Gallagher has now told New York judge Steven I Locke, who has an employment-law background, that it has not been possible to reach a settlement to resolve the matter.

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