Wright v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

District Court, N.D. California·Decided March 18, 2021·No. 3:20-cv-05281·Unknown

Opinion

San Francisco Division ROBERT WRIGHT, on behalf of himself Case No. 20-cv-05281-LB and all others similarly situated, Plaintiff, ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART MOTION TO v. DISMISS CHARLES SCHWAB & CO., INC., Re: ECF No. 39 Defendant. This is a putative class action challenging an alleged bug in Charles Schwab’s online trading platform for stock transactions. The named plaintiff tried to close a short position in Royal Caribbean stock, but Schwab’s automated system purchased the shares without closing the short position. As a result, the plaintiff lost $10,000. The plaintiff’s relationship with Schwab was governed by Schwab’s brokerage agreement. The plaintiff, individually and on behalf of the putative class, sued Schwab for (1) violations of the unlawful and unfair prongs of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL), Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 17200, and (2) breach of contract and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Schwab moved to dismiss the breach-of-contract claim, primarily contending that it is not liable under the brokerage agreement for system bugs and technical errors, and the plaintiff breached the agreement by not notifying Schwab of the glitch. It also moved to dismiss the UCL claim, in part because there are no unlawful acts or unfair practices. The court denies the motion to dismiss the contract claim. The contract exempts Schwab from liability for alleged technical errors like the platform glitch here only for events outside its direct control. Fact issues about Schwab’s control and the plaintiff’s reaction to the glitch preclude dismissal of the claim at the pleadings stage. The court dismisses as superfluous the claim for a breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, dismisses the UCL unlawful claim because the contract defines the parties’ remedies, and dismisses the UCL unfair claim because the plaintiff has not plausibly alleged an unfair practice. Schwab is a registered broker-dealer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and offers investment services, including online brokerage accounts that allow retail customers to buy and sell stocks. It is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (FINRA).1 The plaintiff is a retail customer who uses Schwab’s online trading platform.2 The plaintiff sued Schwab because he lost money when he tried unsuccessfully to close a short position on Schwab’s online platform. An investor shorts a stock by borrowing stock shares and selling them, betting that the stock price will fall and that the investor will be able to buy the stock later at a lower price (and retire the borrowed obligation at a profit). An example: an investor borrows 100 shares of stock, sells them for $15 per share (expecting that the share price will fall), the price falls to $10 per share, and the investor buys 100 shares at $10 per share and closes the short position at a profit. Schwab makes money from transactions, including interest on money borrowed on margin and on the price of the borrowed stock.3

1 Am. Compl. – ECF No. 36 at 2 (¶ 1), 5 (¶ 13). Citations refer to material in the Electronic Case File (ECF); pinpoint citations are to the ECF-generated page numbers at the top of documents. 2 Id. at 3–4 (¶ 7). The plaintiff alleges that Schwab’s online platform for buying and selling stocks malfunctioned. On April 20, 2020, he tried to close a short position on 6,300 shares of Royal Caribbean stock. Schwab bought the replacement 6,300 shares to close the short position, but it did not close the short position. The plaintiff tried several times (by clicking the “close” link) to close the short position, but each click resulted only in duplicate orders for the purchase of the replacement 6,300 shares and did not close the short position. In total, the plaintiff clicked the close link five times over a 10-minute period, resulting in the purchase of 31,500 shares, purchased long on margin (on loaned funds totaling $1.1 million and carrying interest charges).4 “Upon realizing that Schwab’s system placed him into a $1.1 million long position in Royal Caribbean, Plaintiff informed Schwab that Schwab’s system had malfunctioned and that trades were executed inconsistent with his instructions. Schwab did not correct its errors and left . . . [the] short and long positions open, thereby failing to timely execute a securities trade as instructed.” “Given the risk of significant financial loss from a $1.1 million margin loan,” the plaintiff “attempted to mitigate the damages . . . [from] the system malfunction” and sold the shares after hours at a loss that exceeded $10,000. In addition, Schwab removed the plaintiff’s margin buying power for 90 days.5 The system malfunctioned again on April 22, 2020, when the plaintiff tried unsuccessfully to close a new short position in Royal Caribbean stock, again by clicking the close link. The plaintiff “immediately” contacted Schwab. Schwab’s representative said that the system was “getting confused and changing the type” of transaction, which meant that a transaction bought replacement shares but did not close the short position. The representative said that “Schwab was aware of the problem and had been working for several months to correct it.” A week later, a “Resolution Manager” from Schwab’s Client Advocacy Team told the plaintiff that “due its ongoing system malfunction, Schwab failed to execute Plaintiff’s trades as Plaintiff instructed.” “Schwab has not fully compensated Plaintiff for his losses.”6 4 Id. at 2 (¶ 2), 9 (¶¶ 33–35). 5 Id. at 10 (¶¶ 36–39). At this point, the plaintiff had hedged his risk. Mot. – ECF No. 39 at 10 n. 3. The main issue in Schwab’s motion is whether the parties’ brokerage agreement precludes the lawsuit. When the plaintiff opened his account, he — like all customers — had to accept Schwab’s brokerage agreement (called the Schwab One Account Agreement) in order to use Schwab’s online trading platform.7 The agreement has several provisions relevant to the parties’ dispute. First, after a customer completes an application, Schwab opens an account and acts as the customer’s broker to purchase and sell securities for the account “and on [the customer’s] instructions.”8 Second, the agreement defines Schwab’s liability for its failure to complete transactions: If we do not complete a transaction to or from your Account on time or in the correct amount according to our agreement with you, we may be liable for your losses or damages. However, in no event shall Schwab be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages, even if we have been informed of the possibility of such damages. There are some exceptions. (There may be other exceptions not specifically mentioned here.) We will not be liable, for instance, if: . . .  Circumstances beyond our control (such as fire or flood) prevent the transfer, despite reasonable precautions that we have taken. . . .  An error in posting an amount or transaction occurs that is beyond our control.9 Another section called “Limitations of Liability” also provides that Schwab has no liability for events outside of its direct control. Schwab, the Information Providers, Information Transmitters, Third-Party Research Providers and any other person involved in transmitting Information will not be liable for any loss that results from a cause over which that entity does not have direct control. Such causes include, but are not limited to: (1) the failure of electronic or mechanical equipment or communication lines: (2) telephone or other interconnect problems; [and] (3) bugs, errors, configuration problems or the incompatibility of computer hardware or software. . . .”10 7 Id. at 2 (¶ 2); July 2019 Account Agreement, Ex. A to Am. Compl. – ECF No. 36-1 at 32 (§ 1); July 2020 Account Agreement, Ex. B to id. – ECF No. 36-2 at 32 (§ 1). The cour

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Wright v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., (N.D. Cal. 2021).

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