KIDDER, PEABODY & CO. v. MARRINER

The opinion of the court was delivered by: BAER

OPINION AND ORDER

 Hon. Harold Baer, Jr., District Judge:

 Petitioner in these three matters seeks a stay of arbitration of some or all of the claims. Respondents oppose the petition. For the following reasons, the petition to stay is granted in part and denied in part.

 I. Background Not surprisingly, this lawsuit has arisen from disputes about investments. While the issues in these cases overlap, important factual distinctions pervade the petitions to stay arbitration. All three of the cases were filed with the American Arbitration Association (the "AAA"), except for Marriner, which was filed with the American Stock Exchange (the "Amex"). Also, there were no predispute arbitration agreements between petitioner and the respondents in Marriner, Willig, or with respect to one of the four accounts in the Rosenfield matter (the Rosenfield Trust). The three other accounts in Rosenfield (William Rosenfield, Sylvia Rosenfield, and the William and Sylvia Rosenfield Joint Account) were subject to predispute arbitration agreements. These distinctions (as well as the decisions for each with respect to the issues presented here) are summarized in the following table: Party Forum Pre-dispute Punitive Damages Stayed re: 6 Agreement & Atty's Fees Year Eligibility Rule Marriner Amex No Petitioner concedes these Bound By Amex are arbitrable 6 year rule -- arbitration stayed except for 9/18/89 investment in American Income Partners V-A William Rosenfield AAA Yes Both are Predispute arbitrable agreement to arbitrable all matters -- no stay Rosenfield Trust AAA No Petitioner Amex Rules concedes these inapplicable -- are arbitrable no stay William & Sylvia AAA Yes Both are Predispute Rosenfield arbitrable agreement to arbitrate all matters -- no stay Sylvia Rosenfield AAA Yes Both are Predispute arbitrable agreement to arbitrate all matters -- no stay Willig AAA No Petitioner Amex Rules concedes these inapplicable -- are arbitrable no stay

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