A whistleblower who claimed at long last that he had the smoking gun to prove his case fell short on Oct. 6 when a judge refused to reconsider his motion for summary judgment, first denied in 2004.

The ruling came in a Camden County, N.J., case in which Paul Leodori claims CIGNA axed him as an in-house lawyer in retaliation for questioning an allegedly illegal insurance deal with Texaco, whose CEO was on CIGNA’s board.