A former Wedbush Securities Inc. senior vice president can have a jury rather than an arbitrator hear his claims that he was wrongfully terminated because he resisted pressure to release legal claims for wage theft penalties that were the subject of a separate lawsuit filed by a different former Wedbush employee, a judge has ruled.
On Friday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kristin Escalante agreed with plaintiff Michael Stuart’s attorneys that even if the parties agreed to the terms of a 2011 agreement compelling arbitration, the agreement was superseded by a January 2023 employment agreement that did not contain such a requirement.
“The agreement outlined plaintiff’s title, job duties, reporting structure and compensation, including benefits (but) there was no arbitration provision in the agreement,” the judge wrote.
After Stuart signed the amended employment agreement, Wedbush asked the plaintiff to sign a new arbitration agreement and he declined, the judge further wrote.
Escalante gave Wedbush 30 days to answer the complaint and rescheduled the case management conference for Aug. 14.
According to his lawsuit, Stuart was hired in September 2002, as an associate in institutional equity sales and five years later was promoted to his final position of senior vice president of equity sales.
In March 2015, a former Wedbush employee filed a class-action and Private Attorneys General Act lawsuit against Wedbush alleging that the company, among other things, engaged in wage theft and that it failed to pay employees for overtime hours and for missed meal and rest periods.
The California Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act allows aggrieved employees to sue employers for Labor Code violations and recover civil penalties on behalf of the state.
In November 2020, a state appellate court held in the other matter that Wedbush’s commissioned employees, which included Stuart, were not subject to the administrative exemption under California law and were entitled to overtime pay and meal and rest periods. Stuart contends he did not receive overtime or meal and rest periods.
In April 2024, management asked Stuart and some of his colleagues to release their PAGA claims, telling Stuart it “would be helpful to the Wedbush family” to do so, but all of them eventually refused to do so, Stuart alleges. Then, in August of the same year, Wedbush gave Stuart and a colleague low bonuses despite strong job performances, according to Stuart’s suit.
Stuart and his co-workers who objected to the PAGA releases were all over 50 years old and had worked for Wedbush for more than 20 years when they were fired effective December 2024, the Stuart suit states. Stuart believes that Wedbush CEO Gary Wedbush wanted to get rid of the plaintiff and his colleagues because he considered them “disloyal,” according to the plaintiff’s suit filed Nov. 21.