Since September 2020, attorneys from Humphrey, Farrington & McClain, led by Ken McClain, have litigated over 300 separate arbitrations against Defendant DST Systems, Inc. HFM’s clients are hundreds of current and former employees of DST, who seek to recover losses from their 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan.
Humphrey, Farrington & McClain has partnered with a strong team of attorneys to represent the Plaintiffs, including John Klamann and Andrew Schermerhorn of the Klamann Law Firm, Ted Kapke and Mike Fleming of Kapke & Willerth LLC, and William Carr and Bryan White of White Graham Buckley & Carr LLC.
To date, 554 DST employees who participated in the 401k plan have initiated arbitration proceedings. The Plaintiffs have been overwhelmingly successful in these arbitration proceedings, winning over 80% of the claims.
This week the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri entered an order confirming $3,291,374.60 in arbitration awards from twenty separate arbitrations where HFM represented the Plaintiffs.
DST Systems opposed confirmation of these awards, but the District Court held DST is judicially estopped from switching its litigation position. Judicial estoppel is a legal doctrine that prevents a party from taking one position and succeeding, only to turn around and take the opposite position later, as it suits its needs.
When HFM filed these claims as a class action, DST enforced its arbitration agreement with its employees, and required all employees to arbitrate their claims on an individual basis. But after HFM filed over 500 individual arbitrations, DST, unable to adequately defend against HFM’s team of attorneys, changed positions and asserted that these claims cannot be resolved through arbitration, and instead must be resolved as a class action. The District Court ruled it was too late for DST to back out of the arbitrations it compelled.
The Western District’s Order delivers yet another win to the Plaintiffs and hundreds of similar orders confirming additional arbitration awards are hopefully forthcoming.
