Halligan v. Piper Jaffray, Inc.

Theodore Halligan (plaintiff) worked for Piper Jaffray, Inc. (Piper) (defendant), selling equity investments to financial institutions. Halligan had signed a standard form requiring arbitration of future disputes. Following a change in Piper’s CEO, Halligan believed he was pushed out of his job due to his age, despite his high performance. Halligan was earning nearly $500,000 per year. Halligan ranked fifth out of 25 institutional salespeople and was ranked first from 1987 through 1991. Halligan filed a claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which was submitted to a National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) arbitration panel. During the arbitration proceedings, Piper conceded that Halligan was basically qualified, and took the position that he had voluntarily retired and that he had performance and health issues. Halligan testified to repeated discriminatory statements by the new CEO, Tad Piper, and others, which was confirmed by witnesses. Halligan submitted his contemporaneous notes of some of those conversations. Halligan twice had oral cancer surgery, but it did not affect his ability to perform his job. Regarding his departure, Halligan told witnesses he was being fired, and he refused to announce his resignation to his clients. Halligan died, but his wife, Irene Halligan, continued the arbitration. The arbitrators denied relief to the Halligans without offering a written explanation. Irene petitioned the district court to vacate the award under the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 10(a). Irene argued that given the strong evidence of discrimination and the fact that both parties agreed on the applicable law, which was adequately explained to the arbitrators, the award reflected manifest disregard of the law. Piper cross-petitioned the district court to confirm the award. The district judge declined to vacate the award, instead confirming it, stating that because there was factual and legal support for the panel’s decision, it did not manifestly disregard the law. Irene separately filed an ADEA complaint in district court, which Piper successfully moved to dismiss on grounds of res judicata, arguing the issue had already been adjudicated in the arbitration. Halligan appealed.