(Bloomberg) -- Credit Suisse Group AG is seeking to vacate an arbitrator’s decision to award $1.3 million to a former financial adviser who accused the bank of holding back his deferred compensation following the closure of its US wealth management unit in 2015.
The bank filed a petition on Thursday asking a federal court in New York to overturn the award to James D. Garrity, who worked for Credit Suisse for 15 years before joining Morgan Stanley in 2015.
The Swiss bank had almost 300 brokers in its US wealth management unit when it announced it was selling its US private-banking business to Wells Fargo & Co. in 2015. Garrity’s case is among dozens of claims made against Credit Suisse since it made the deal with Wells Fargo, which former advisers claim constituted termination without cause that entitles them to deferred compensation.
Credit Suisse maintained that Garrity wasn’t entitled to deferred compensation because he had voluntarily resigned.
Garrity’s lawyers with Lax & Neville LLP have won more than $32 million for 26 former Credit Suisse advisers in eight arbitrations, according to its website. The bank has sought to vacate at least seven of those awards, according to the firm.
The suit was expected, said Barry Lax, an attorney for Garrity.
“Credit Suisse does not get to relitigate these claims in court, as every court has ruled,” Lax said.
The case is Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v James D. Garrity, 23-cv-1830, US District Court, Southern District of New York.