A London appeals court has ruled in favor of three London-based executives, rejecting their former New York-based employer’s attempt to sue them in a U.S. court to recover ground lost when they left in April for a rival company.

The case concerns three executives, Julian Samengo-Turner, Ron Whyte and Marcus Hopkins, who were based in London while working for Guy Carpenter, a reinsurance intermediary whose parent company is Marsh & McLennan Cos. a New York-based global professional services firm.