Motekaitis

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9 PAUL MOTEKAITIS, et al., Case No. 24-cv-00885-RS Plaintiffs, 11 v. ORDER REGARDING MOTIONS TO DISMISS USI INSURANCE SERVICES, LLC, et al., 13 Defendants.

15 I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiffs Paul Motekaitis and Carri Mangelli Kneass aver that they were defamed by a long list of Defendants, including their former employer USI Insurance Services, LLC; six USI employees; Marsh & McLennan Insurance Agency, LLC (“MMA”); and one of its employees, David Russell. In essence, Plaintiffs claim that USI and its top brass harmed them by writing and then widely disseminating a maliciously false email about the circumstances of Plaintiffs’ split with the firm. After receiving leave to amend the complaint, Plaintiffs added a defamation claim against Russell and MMA for their part in allegedly republishing the email by forwarding it to others in the insurance industry. Russell and MMA now move to…