Page Perry Partners Win $3.96 Million For Former Brokerage Firm Executive

Page Perry partners J. Boyd Page and J. Steven Parker recently obtained a multi-million dollar FINRA arbitration award in favor of Thomas P. Fitzgerald, the former Executive Vice President and COO of H&R Block Financial Advisors, Inc., against his former firm and its parent company, H&R Block, Inc., for breach of their contractual and severance obligations.

Fitzgerald alleged in arbitration proceedings that he was denied contractual compensation and severance benefits because he would not agree to a two-year non-compete restriction that the firms attempted to force upon him. Such an unreasonable non-compete restriction was not required by his employment agreement or the firm’s severance plan, and violated Michigan law, Fitzgerald alleged.

The arbitrators found that H&R Block Financial Advisors and its parent H&R Block were liable to Fitzgerald and awarded him $3.96 million in damages.  The award included $3.01 million in compensatory damages, $466,565 in interest, and $481,910 in attorneys’ fees.

Page Perry argued that: (i) H&R Block Financial Advisors and H&R Block withheld from Fitzgerald certain stock options that they were contractually obligated to pay him, and (ii) H&R Block Financial Advisors and H&R Block refused to pay Fitzgerald severance benefits as required by the terms of the company’s severance plan.

Robert M. Vercruysse and Bernice McReynolds of the Bingham Farms, Michigan law firm of Vercyrusse Murray & Calzone, P.C. represented H&R Block Financial Advisors and H&R Block.  Witnesses who testified at the hearing included Mark Ernst, the former Chairman and CEO of H&R Block, Brian Nygaard, the former CEO of H&R Block Financial Advisors, Dave Andrew, the General Counsel of H&R Block Financial Advisors, Professor Maria O’Brien Hylton of the Boston University School of Law, and Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald said, “The award represents incentive compensation that was promised to me and which I earned.  I am extremely pleased that it is a ‘make whole’ award for the amount that I am owed.”

J. Steven Parker said, “It has been a long and arduous proceeding. We are pleased that justice has been done.  We are thankful that the arbitrators weighed all the evidence and reached a fair and just decision.”

The case is FINRA Dispute Resolution Arbitration No. 05-02411. The five-day arbitration hearing was held in the Detroit, Michigan area in November 2007.