Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Bucsek, No. 17-881 (2d Cir. 2019)
Annotate this Case
The Second Circuit affirmed the district court's order granting MetLife a preliminary injunction barring defendant from arbitrating his claims before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The court held that the district court did not err in holding that the question of whether MetLife was obligated to arbitrate the dispute was to be decided by the court, rather than the arbitrator.
Furthermore, the district court did not err by holding that MetLife was not required by the FINRA arbitration code to arbitrate claims arising out of events that occurred long after MetLife's withdrawal from FINRA's predecessor, the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD). The court held that the arbitration code did not apply to a dispute based on events that occurred years after the parties had severed their connections with the NASD. In this case, the court found nothing in the Code that clearly and unmistakably evidenced a contractual intent to confer resolution of arbitrability on the arbitrators for a claim such as defendant's, which was based on facts long subsequent to the parties' involvement in the NASD.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.