Anthem office in Richmond,Virginia. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAWJOURNAL

Eleven states and the District of Columbia will receive nearly$3 million in legal fees as part of an agreement following antitrust litigation that successfully blockedthe proposed $54 billion merger of Anthem Inc. andCigna Corp.

California, Connecticut, New York, Georgia and the District ofColumbia were among the states that challenged the proposed tie-upin Washington federal district court. The settlement agreement says the $2.975million payment for fees and costs will be paid to the state ofMaryland, which “will be responsible for disbursing the funds tothe other plaintiff states as they may agree among themselves.”

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Messages left with Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh'soffice were not immediately returned Friday.

Lawyers for the plaintiff states filed a proposed order in Washingtonfederal district court on Thursday announcing the fee settlement.The amount of the fees did not appear in the proposed order “at therequest of Anthem and Cigna,” lawyers for the plaintiff states saidin the court filing.

Charles Rule at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, alawyer for Cigna, was not immediately reached for comment. Anthem'slead trial attorney, Christopher Curran of White & Case, alsowas not immediately reached.

Thomas Zielinski, the general counsel to Indianapolis-basedAnthem, signed the settlement with Nicole Jones, general counsel toBloomfield, Connecticut-based Cigna. The companies agreed to splitthe payment equally.

The state plaintiffs in conjunction with the U.S. Department ofJustice sued in July 2016 in Washington federal district court toblock the deal. The proposed merger would have created the largesthealth insurance company in the country. The plaintiffsargued at trial thatcompetition creates innovation.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District ofColumbia blocked the merger in February 2017. The insurance giantsquickly appealed the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for theDistrict of Columbia Circuit and then petitioned the U.S. SupremeCourt. When the high court denied the petition in June 2017, Aetnaand Cigna abandoned their merger plans.

George Jepsen, the Connecticut attorney general, said in 2016 that his officehad spent a year working with law enforcement counterparts toreview the proposed merger. Rachel Davis, an assistant attorneygeneral, was a lead trial lawyer for Connecticut in the case.

That work, Jepsen said, included “conducting numerousstakeholder interviews, joining in multiple depositions of partyrepresentatives, reviewing thousands of documents and participatingin meetings with both parties.” Jepsen said in a statement then:“This merger would substantially lessen competition for theprovision of health care insurance services.”

Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement at the timethe lawsuit was filed: “We must not allow insurance companies togrow their profits at the expense of consumers. By joining thislawsuit, I urge the court to block this proposed merger.”

A message to California Deputy Attorney General Paula Gibson, asignatory on the agreement with other lawyers for the stateplaintiffs, was also not returned.

Mike Scarcella contributed reporting fromWashington.