{"id":615,"date":"2011-09-30T18:30:34","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eleventh-circuit-affirms-arbitration-award-against-former-charles-schwab-employee\/"},"modified":"2011-09-30T18:30:34","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T18:30:34","slug":"eleventh-circuit-affirms-arbitration-award-against-former-charles-schwab-employee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eleventh-circuit-affirms-arbitration-award-against-former-charles-schwab-employee\/","title":{"rendered":"Eleventh Circuit Affirms Arbitration Award Against Former Charles Schwab Employee"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Javier Aviles v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.<\/em>, No. 10-1226 (11th Cir. July 20, 2011), a former employee of Charles Schwab was unsuccessful in persuading the Eleventh Circuit to vacate an award entered against him in an arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.<\/p>\n

Javier Aviles was an employee of Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (\u201cSchwab\u201d).\u00a0 Mr. Aviles left Schwab to join Banc of America Investment Services, Inc. (\u201cBAI\u201d).\u00a0 Schwab filed an arbitration against Mr. Aviles and BAI asserting that Mr. Aviles was improperly soliciting Schwab clients.\u00a0 The panel dismissed BAI but entered an award of $1.4 million against Mr. Aviles.<\/p>\n

Mr. Aviles sought to vacate the award on several grounds.\u00a0 One ground was that the arbitrators refused to hear evidence material to the controversy.\u00a0 Mr. Aviles had sought to introduce unsworn declarations that were forms prepared by him with blanks to be filled in by former Schwab clients who followed him to BAI.\u00a0 The forms stated: \u201cMy decision to transfer my account to Bank of America was based solely on my own determination that it was advantageous for me to continue dealing with Javier Aviles.\u00a0 It was not induced, solicited, or persuaded by Javier Aviles to transfer my account.\u201d\u00a0 The forms contained signature lines for the clients.<\/p>\n

Schwab moved in limine to exclude the unsworn forms.\u00a0 The panel granted the motion with the chairperson stating that the panel did not want to see evidence that was not sworn to or authenticated.\u00a0 The chairperson offered to sign subpoenas to allow Mr. Aviles to present evidence acceptable to the panel regarding this subject matter.\u00a0 The chairperson also reminded Mr. Aviles that witness testimony could be introduced by telephone.\u00a0 Mr. Aviles did not avail himself of either of these options.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the District Court\u2019s denial of Mr. Aviles\u2019 motion to vacate, finding that the panel\u2019s requirement that the proffered forms be authenticated was reasonable and that the panel\u2019s rulings did not prejudice his right to introduce all evidence pertinent and material to the controversy.\u00a0 The Eleventh Circuit thus rejected Mr. Aviles\u2019 argument that the arbitrators\u2019 refusal to hear material evidence justified vacating the award.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit also rejected Mr. Aviles\u2019 argument of arbitrator bias.\u00a0 Mr. Aviles had introduced an affidavit from an arbitrator who had served on a panel with the chairperson in a different arbitration.\u00a0 The affiant avowed that the chairperson had made certain statements to him about his views on the role of arbitrators.\u00a0 Specifically, the affidavit asserted that the chairperson once told the other arbitrator that \u201cin his view, if a court enters a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order against the financial advisor before the arbitration, then his only task as an arbitrator in the subsequent arbitration on the merits, is to quantify and award damages against the financial advisor.\u201d\u00a0 Schwab had sought and obtained a court-issued injunction against Mr. Aviles.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit found that the affidavit did not demonstrate that the chairperson was impartial. The Eleventh Circuit held that \u201cpartiality\u201d in this context means bias in favor of or against a party.\u00a0 The affidavit containing the chairperson\u2019s alleged statement did not show that he was biased against Mr. Aviles or predisposed in favor of Schwab, or that he had even dealt with either party before.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit found that \u201c[a]t most, the affidavit is evidence that the chair\u2019s understanding on a matter of law (the relationship between the issuance of the temporary injunction and the panel\u2019s consideration of the merits) was incorrect before the hearing.\u201d\u00a0 Such a misunderstanding is not evidence of bias, and manifest disregard of the law is not grounds for setting aside the arbitration award.<\/p>\n

The Eleventh Circuit thus rejected Mr. Aviles\u2019 various arguments to have the award set aside and affirmed the District Court\u2019s denial of his motion to vacate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Javier Aviles v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., No. 10-1226 (11th Cir. July 20, 2011), a former employee of Charles Schwab was unsuccessful in persuading the Eleventh Circuit to vacate an award entered against him in an arbitration before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Javier Aviles was an employee of Charles Schwab & Co., […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[30,16],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEleventh Circuit Affirms Arbitration Award Against Former Charles Schwab Employee - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bfvlaw.com\/eleventh-circuit-affirms-arbitration-award-against-former-charles-schwab-employee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eleventh Circuit Affirms Arbitration Award Against Former Charles Schwab Employee - Berman Fink Van Horn P.C.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In Javier Aviles v. 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