Sager v. DIST. COURT FOR SECOND JUD. DIST.

698 P.2d 250
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 15, 1985
Docket84SA302
StatusPublished

This text of 698 P.2d 250 (Sager v. DIST. COURT FOR SECOND JUD. DIST.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sager v. DIST. COURT FOR SECOND JUD. DIST., 698 P.2d 250 (Colo. 1985).

Opinion

698 P.2d 250 (1985)

Edmond S. SAGER, Petitioner,
v.
The DISTRICT COURT for the SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT of the State of Colorado and the Honorable Gilbert A. Alexander, one of the Judges thereof, Respondents.

No. 84SA302.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

April 15, 1985.

*251 Kelly, Stansfield & O'Donnell, Timothy J. Flanagan, Charles Carpenter, Denver, for petitioner.

Berenbaum & Weinshienk, Peter R. Bornstein, Denver, for respondents.

ROVIRA, Justice.

The petitioner, Edmond S. Sager, filed this original proceeding under C.A.R. 21 for relief in the nature of mandamus. He challenges as an abuse of discretion the trial court's order granting a stay of judicial proceedings pending arbitration. We issued a rule to show cause and now discharge the rule.

In 1983, the petitioner filed suit for compensatory and punitive damages in the Denver District Court against Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Company (Smith Barney), a securities broker, and its employee, Gilbert R. Hitchcock. The complaint alleged that the petitioner was a resident of Colorado, Smith Barney was a Delaware corporation authorized to do business in Colorado, and Hitchcock was a New Mexico resident. It also stated three claims for relief. The first was for breach of fiduciary duty; the second for professional negligence; and the third for violation of the Colorado Securities Act of 1981, section 11-51-101 to -129, 4 C.R.S. (1984 Supp.).

The defendants, prior to filing an answer, moved for an order staying the proceedings pending arbitration of the dispute between the parties. In support of the motion, the defendants relied on the Customer's Agreement signed by the petitioner, which provided in pertinent part:

Any controversy arising out of or relating to my account, to transactions with you for me to this Agreement or the breach thereof, shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the rules, regulations, and procedures then in effect of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc., the Amex or National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. as I may elect. If I do not make such election by registered mail, postage prepaid and addressed to you at your main office within five days after demand by you that I make such election, then you may make such election. Judgment upon any award rendered by the arbitrators may be entered in any court having jurisdiction thereof.

The respondent trial court initially entered a stay pending arbitration, but later reconsidered that order and, based upon Sandefer v. Reynolds Securities, Inc., 44 Colo.App. 343, 618 P.2d 690 (1980), reversed *252 its ruling and ordered the defendants to file an answer.

The defendants then petitioned this court, pursuant to C.A.R. 21, for a rule to show cause, alleging that the trial court had abused its discretion in not ordering a stay of proceedings pending arbitration. We denied the petition "without prejudice to request the trial court to reconsider in light of Southland Corp. v. Keating, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 852, 79 L.Ed.2d 1 (1984)."

The respondent trial court, after considering Southland, reversed its prior ruling and ordered that "this case shall be held in abeyance and stayed pending arbitration between the parties."

I.

In Sandefer v. Reynolds Securities, Inc., 44 Colo.App. 343, 618 P.2d 690 (1980), cert. denied, October 6, 1980, the court of appeals held that arbitration agreements between brokers and investors are void as applied to claims arising under the Colorado Securities Act. It arrived at this decision by adopting the rationale of Wilko v. Swan, 346 U.S. 427, 74 S.Ct. 182, 98 L.Ed. 168 (1953). In Wilko, the Supreme Court held that section 14 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the Act)[1] rendered customer-broker arbitration agreements unenforceable as applied to disputes arising under section 12(2)[2] of the Act. The rationale of Wilko was adopted because the language of the statute in question, section 11-51-125(7), 4 C.R.S. (1973),[3] was virtually identical to that of section 14 of the Act.

In Sandefer v. District Court, 635 P.2d 547 (Colo.1981), we considered whether nonstatutory claims may be submitted to arbitration under an agreement to arbitrate disputes when the nonstatutory claims are part of a complaint alleging a violation of the Colorado Securities Act. Adopting the doctrine of intertwining, we concluded that the claims of breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, and violation of the Colorado Securities Act were so interconnected that the trial court should decide all of the claims.

The case at issue involves substantially the same questions which were considered in the two Sandefer cases. Here, two nonstatutory claims for relief have been joined with a claim alleging violation of the Colorado Securities Act of 1981. Absent any intervening decision of the United States Supreme Court, we would expect the trial court to follow the decision of the court of appeals in Sandefer v. Reynolds Securities, Inc., and hold that the Colorado securities claim was not arbitrable. Also, based on Sandefer v. District Court, we would expect it to determine whether the statutory and nonstatutory claims were so intertwined that they should all be decided together, or whether the nonstatutory claims should be decided by arbitration and the securities claim reserved for judicial resolution.

However, since the Sandefer decisions, the United States Supreme Court has promulgated two opinions which must be considered, Southland Corp. v. Keating, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 852, 79 L.Ed.2d 1 (1984), and Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. v. Byrd, ___ U.S. ___, 105 S.Ct. 1238, 84 L.Ed.2d 158 (1985).

In Southland, the Court considered whether the California Franchise Investment Law (the Franchise Law),[4] which invalidates certain arbitration agreements covered by the Federal Arbitration Act (the *253 Arbitration Act), violates the Supremacy Clause, U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2. In that case, several franchisees brought suit against Southland alleging, inter alia, fraud, misrepresentation, and violation of the disclosure requirements of the Franchise Law. Southland petitioned to compel arbitration of all the claims based upon the franchise agreement which required that any controversy or claim arising out of the agreement "shall be settled by arbitration." The trial court granted the motion with the exception of those claims based on the Franchise Law. The California Supreme Court affirmed, holding that claims asserted under the Franchise Law were not subject to arbitration because of California Corporations Code section 31512 (part of the Franchise Law),[5] and that the statute did not contravene section 2 of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 2 (1982).[6]Keating v. Superior Court, 31 Cal.3d 584, 645 P.2d 1192, 183 Cal.Rptr.

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Related

Wilko v. Swan
346 U.S. 427 (Supreme Court, 1953)
Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co.
388 U.S. 395 (Supreme Court, 1967)
Southland Corp. v. Keating
465 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1984)
Dean Witter Reynolds Inc. v. Byrd
470 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1985)
Sandefer v. District Court, City & County of Denver
635 P.2d 547 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1981)
Keating v. Superior Court
645 P.2d 1192 (California Supreme Court, 1982)
Sandefer v. Reynolds Securities, Inc.
618 P.2d 690 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 1980)
Garmo v. Dean, Witter, Reynolds, Inc.
681 P.2d 253 (Washington Supreme Court, 1984)
Oppenheimer & Co., Inc. v. Young
456 So. 2d 1175 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1984)
Sager v. District Court for the Second Judicial District
698 P.2d 250 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1985)

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698 P.2d 250, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sager-v-dist-court-for-second-jud-dist-colo-1985.