The Class Action Waiver Is Enforceable. When a financial advisor brought a putative class action against Credit Suisse for deferred compensation, Credit Suisse moved successfully to dismiss based on an arbitration requirement in its Employee Dispute Resolution Program. The financial advisor appealed, arguing that Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) rule Rule 13204(a)(4) barred arbitration […]
Bank Likely To Succeed On Merits As To Whether It, Or Its Corporate Trust Department, Was A "Municipal Securities Dealer" Subject To FINRA Arbitration. If your eyes begin to glaze over when reading about the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) rules, conduit municipal bonds, indenture trustees, Institutional Investment Departments (IIDs), […]
Ninth Circuit Allows Equitable Tolling For Claim To Vacate Award Brought More Than Four Years After Entry Of Award. Fraud against Truth. Currier & Ives. 1872. Library of Congress. Yikes! In 2009, Move, Inc. lost a multi-million dollar securities claim before a three-member FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) arbitration panel. In 2014, Move learned […]
Arbitrators Allowed One Party To Speak And Did Not Allow Other Side Even A Limited Chance To Do The Same Or To Cross-Examine. One of the raps against arbitration is that arbitration proceedings lack due process. In Royal Alliance Associates, Inc. v. Liebhaber, No. B264619 (2/4 8/30/16) (Collins, Epstein, Manella), the Court of Appeal […]
Notwithstanding the trend in SCOTUS to uphold arbitration agreements, including waiver of class arbitration, our next two unpublished cases show that the California courts look closely at arbitration agreements, sometimes enforcing and sometimes not enforcing arbitration agreements. On the same day, one California Court of Appeal reversed an order denying an employer’s effort to […]
Deadlines: Lombard Knight v. Rainstorm Pictures, Inc., B253246 (2/1 March 25, 2015). In this case involving agreements to finance the production of motion pictures, Plaintiff sought to “confirm” a multi-million dollar arbitration award, while also asking to dismiss individuals, on the grounds that they had not been properly served, and jurisdiction over them […]
Waiver Of Arbitration Results In Affirmance Of Denial Of Petition To Arbitrate. The Court of Appeal affirmed denial of a petition to compel arbitration, finding substantial evidence to support appellant’s waiver of a right to arbitrate its dispute. LPT Properties, LLC v. Wystein Opportunity Fund, LLC et al., G048803 (4/3 Oct. 21, 2014) (Fybel, […]
Court, Rather Than FINRA, Gets To Determine Arbitrability Of Dispute Reno, Nevada, issued $211M in complex securities, known as auction rate securities (ARS). After the market for ARS collapsed in 2008, Reno sought FINRA arbitration with Goldman, Reno’s underwriter and broker-dealer. Reno’s theory was that if it had known that ARS were routinely propped […]
The Twist Here: A Defunct Member of FINRA Cannot Compel Arbitration – But Its Agent or Third Party Beneficiary Could Do So Here (Maybe) The Ronay Family Limited Partnership (Ronay) sued its financial advisor Robert R. Tweed, his investment firm TFI, and others, claiming Ronay had lost $4M as a result of bum investment […]
Lead Underwriter in Facebook IPO Seeks to Avoid FINRA Arbitration With Facebook Investor On November 6, 2012, Suzanne Barlyn reported for Reuters that Morgan Stanley, a lead underwriter for the Facebook IPO, has filed a complaint in federal court in Manhattan seeking an order to stop FINRA arbitration initiated by a Facebook investor who […]