Georgia Court Upholds $4.1 Million Damage Award Against SunTrust Robinson Humphrey for Terminating and Defaming a Broker who Sold Auction Rate Securities
On July 30, 2010, Judge Michael D. Johnson of the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia, confirmed and upheld a December 2009 award issued by an Atlanta-based Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) arbitration panel ordering SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. (SunTrust) to pay over $4.1 million in damages (including punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs) to a former registered representative based on a claim of wrongful termination and malicious defamation in annotating the claimant’s Form U-5 (a regulatory filing) to indicate that he had been “permitted to resign” for “failure to follow firm sales practice policy.”
After the award was issued, SunTrust filed a motion to vacate (i.e., throw out) the award, which Judge Johnson denied at the same time that he confirmed the award.
Arbitration awards are notoriously difficult to vacate, and are considered to be “final” absent a showing that certain statutory grounds for vacating an award exist. Such grounds essentially involve a corruption of the process, and exist only:
(1) where the award was procured by corruption, fraud, or undue means;
(2) where there was evident partiality or corruption in the arbitrators, or either of them;
(3) where the arbitrators were guilty of misconduct in refusing to postpone the hearing, upon sufficient cause shown, or in refusing to hear evidence pertinent and material to the controversy; or any other misbehavior by which the rights of any party have been prejudiced; or
(4) where the arbitrators exceeded their powers, or so imperfectly executed them that a mutual, final, and definite award upon the subject matter submitted was not made.
Curtis Carlson, Charles M. Dalziel, Jr., and Joseph Alonso, the lawyers comprising the registered representative’s legal team, are now in the process of effectuating the expungement of the employee’s record as ordered by the arbitration panel and Judge Johnson.
Page Perry, LLC is an Atlanta-based law firm with over 125 years collective experience representing investors in securities-related litigation and arbitration. The firm also has an active practice in representing individuals in employment disputes with brokerage firms. The firm is currently involved in representing several brokers in such disputes. The firm has won arbitration award for clients in employment disputes in the amounts of $1.7 million and $3.9 million. For further information, please contact www.pageperry.com.
