Attorney David Neuman Successfully Appeals a Limited-Fund, Non-Opt Out Class Settlement

Israels & Neuman PLC is proud to announce that attorney David Neuman has successfully overturned a limited fund, non-opt-out class settlement with a former securities broker-dealer.

Mr. Neuman, along with co-counsel Gail Boliver, opposed a proposed class action settlement made with former FINRA member DeWaay Financial Network and related entities.   DeWaay had sold a vast number of private placements and non-traded REITs to its investors, who then suffered immense investment losses as a result.  Mr. Neuman, along with a number of securities arbitration clients, had arbitration claims against DeWaay, but those claims were stayed by an Iowa state court while the class action claims proceeded.

In essence, the class plaintiffs sought to enjoin the arbitration claims from proceeding and argued that the arbitration claims against DeWaay would eat up all available assets, leaving the class plaintiffs with nothing.   Therefore, the class plaintiffs argued that every putative class member should be precluded from opting out and forced to accept a class settlement that would amount to pennies on the dollar of their losses, yet still allow the defendants to remain in business. Unfortunately, the lower court agreed with the class plaintiffs.

On appeal, Mr. Neuman and Mr. Boliver successfully argued that this settlement did not comport with the factors outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp.  The Appellate Court of Iowa reversed the lower court and remanded the case, finding that the lower court did not do enough to determine whether all available assets were used for the proposed settlement.

A copy of the Appellate Court of Iowa’s March 25, 2015 order is attached here:  Order from App. Court 3.25.15