FIRST OPTIONS OF CHICAGO, INC. v. MANUEL KAPLAN, et ux. AND MK INVESTMENTS, INC. (514 U.S. 938)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 22, 1995 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 514 U.S. 938 · 115 S. Ct. 1920
- Decided
- May 22, 1995
- Term
- October Term 1994
- Vote
- 9–0
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case we consider two questions about how courts should review certain matters under the federal Arbitration Act, 9 U. S. C. § 1 et seq. (1988 ed. and Supp. V): (1) how a district court should review an arbitrator’s decision that the parties agreed to arbitrate a dispute, and (2) how a court of appeals should review a district court’s decision confirming, or refusing to vacate, an arbitration award. I The case concerns several related disputes between, on one side, First Options of Chicago, Inc., a firm that clears stock trades on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and, on the other side, three parties: Manuel Kaplan; his wife, Carol Kaplan; and his wholly owned investment company, MK Investments, Inc. (MKI), whose trading account First Options cleared. The disputes center on a “workout” agreement, embodied in four separate documents, which governs the “working out” of debts to First Options that MKI and the Kaplans incurred as a result of the October 1987 stock market crash. In 1989, after entering into the agreement, MKI lost an additional $1.5 million. First Options then took control of, and liquidated, certain MKI assets; demanded immediate payment of the entire MKI debt; and insisted that the Kaplans personally pay any deficiency. When its demands went unsatisfied, First Options sought arbitration by a panel of the…
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