Loewen Suit

Willie E. Gary stands for a portrait next to his desk in a dapper coat and tie. His arm rests on a brown leather chair. There are 3 books on his desk in the foreground. The photograph is in color.

Willie E. Gary wins $500 million dollar verdict

In 1987, the Loewen Group began acquiring funeral homes and cemeteries in the United States and expanded its holdings throughout the early 1990s. The 1995 O’Keefe vs. Loewen was between Raymond L. “Ray” Loewen and Jerry J. O’Keefe. Loewen's company, Loewen's Group, was based in Canada, and Jerry J. O'Keefe was based in Mississippi. The case brought to light tactics the Loewen Group had been using in their United States acquisitions.

The case involved Gulf National Life Insurance (GNL), owned by O'Keefe. A company named Wright & Ferguson Funeral Homes in Jackson, Mississippi had a contract with O'Keefe to sell only GNL Insurance policies. When the Loewen Group acquired Wright & Ferguson, Loewen stopped selling GNL Insurance and began selling their own policies. O'Keefe filed a lawsuit against the Loewen Group for breach of contract. As the dispute further escalated, O'Keefe expanded his lawsuit.

For the case, Loewen recruited former Mississippi Supreme Court judge James Robertson, state senator Robert Johnson, and state representative Ed Blackmon. O'Keefe hired Willie Gary, a charismatic lawyer based in Florida, to work with Jackson-based attorneys, Mike Allred and Hal Dockins. In the end, the jury awarded O’Keefe $500 million in damages. At the time, it was the largest verdict in the state of Mississippi and one of the largest in the nation. The two sides agreed to a deal requiring the Loewen Group to pay $175 million.