Munizzi v. UBS Financial Services, Inc. , 2021 IL App (1st) 201237 ( 2021 )


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    2021 IL App (1st) 201237
    SIXTH DIVISION
    November 19, 2021
    IN THE
    APPELLATE COURT OF ILLINOIS
    FIRST DISTRICT
    No. 1-20-1237
    )
    MARK MUNIZZI,                                               )      Appeal from the
    )      Circuit Court of
    Plaintiff-Appellee,                                  )      Cook County.
    )
    v.                                                          )      No. 19 CH 14398.
    )
    UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES, INC.,                               )      Honorable
    )      Caroline Kate Moreland,
    Defendant-Appellant.                                 )      Judge Presiding.
    )
    JUSTICE MIKVA delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.
    Presiding Justice Pierce and Justice Oden Johnson concurred in the judgment and opinion.
    OPINION
    ¶1     The circuit court in this case confirmed an arbitration award in favor of plaintiff Mark
    Munizzi and against defendant UBS Financial Services, Inc. (UBS). After two UBS accounts
    suffered significant losses, UBS fired Mr. Munizzi and subsequently filed the required regulatory
    form reporting the reasons for his termination. On the form, UBS stated that Mr. Munizzi was fired
    because “he failed to adequately supervise employees” and because he “gave varied responses
    during the review.” In response, Mr. Munizzi filed a claim against UBS for defamation and other
    related claims.
    ¶2     As required by Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 13200 (see Fin.
    Indus. Regulatory Auth., Rule 13200 Required Arbitration (amended Dec. 15, 2008),
    No. 1-20-1237
    https://www.finra.org/rules-guidance/rulebooks/finra-rules/13200           [https://perma.cc/9AGF-
    2JZZ]), the claims were submitted to arbitration. After a hearing, a panel of three arbitrators found
    in favor of Mr. Munizzi and against UBS and awarded Mr. Munizzi damages in excess of $11
    million—including compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, costs, and interest. The
    circuit court confirmed the award.
    ¶3      UBS appeals, arguing that the arbitration award should be vacated as against public policy
    and because the circuit court erred in concluding that the arbitration panel’s factual findings were
    binding. UBS argues, in the alternative, that the award of punitive damages should be vacated. For
    the following reasons, we affirm.
    ¶4                                        I. BACKGROUND
    ¶5      The record on appeal includes Mr. Munizzi’s motion to confirm the arbitration award,
    UBS’s motion to vacate the arbitration award, and the various exhibits that were attached to those
    motions. The exhibits attached to the motions include portions of some of the exhibits from the
    arbitration hearing itself and transcripts of portions of the testimony given by Mr. Munizzi and
    other witnesses at that hearing. The parties agree that neither this court nor the circuit court have
    been supplied with a complete record of the arbitration hearing. Based on the record that is before
    us, the history of this case is as follows.
    ¶6      Mr. Munizzi, a registered broker/salesperson and investment adviser representative, was
    hired by UBS in 2003. In 2016, Mr. Munizzi became the Chicago-area market supervisory officer,
    and his duties included overseeing the securities brokerage managers—who supervise financial
    advisors and accounts—in UBS’s Chicago branch offices. According to Mr. Munizzi, he received
    exemplary annual assessments throughout his time at UBS and, in his 36 years working in the
    securities industry, he never failed a regulatory or internal audit or received a write-up or warning
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    No. 1-20-1237
    of any kind.
    ¶7     On February 5, 2018, two UBS accounts suffered extraordinary losses. One was an
    employee account and the other was an account held by the mother of an employee. According to
    Mr. Munizzi’s testimony at the arbitration hearing, these two accounts held specific options that
    can be profitable when “stock market volatility is relatively low” but will likely result in losses
    when stock prices fluctuate.
    ¶8     As also explained by Mr. Munizzi at the arbitration hearing, under regulatory and UBS
    requirements, customers who hold these risky types of options are subject to “margin”
    requirements, meaning those customers must maintain a certain level of assets in their accounts
    “based on the value of the margin position.” If the options lose value, a margin call may be issued
    for additional collateral. If a customer does not respond to that margin call within five days—by,
    for example, depositing cash or eligible securities—the firm will sell investments in the customer’s
    account to “meet the call.” If the loss on the options exceeds the proceeds from the sale of
    investments in the account, UBS is liable for the resulting “unsecured debit,” subject to potential
    collection from the customer.
    ¶9     The stock market was volatile on Friday, February 2, 2018, and at the end of that day, one
    of these accounts had “large unrealized losses in excess of $700,000” and the other had a “margin
    call” “that exceeded $800,000.” The following Monday, February 5, 2018, the stock market
    dropped 1000 points, and by market close, the unsecured losses in both of these accounts had
    increased to more than $3 million. After an investigation into these losses, UBS terminated Mr.
    Munizzi on April 19, 2018.
    ¶ 10   As required by Illinois law and the FINRA rules, UBS filed a form U5—the “Uniform
    Termination Notice for Securities Industry Registration”—disclosing the termination. On the form
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    No. 1-20-1237
    U5, UBS indicated that the “Reason for Termination” was that Mr. Munizzi was “discharged after
    firm review determined that (1) he failed to adequately supervise employees in association with
    the risks of an uncovered options strategy in employee and employee related accounts and (2) gave
    varied responses during the review.”
    ¶ 11   Mr. Munizzi filed his complaint before the FINRA arbitration committee, alleging claims
    of defamation per se, a violation of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (Wage Act)
    (820 ILCS 115/1 et seq. (West 2018)), and tortious interference with prospective economic
    advantage against UBS. In his complaint, Mr. Munizzi alleged that “[w]hen registered employees
    are terminated, a summary of the U5 appears on FINRA’s widely publicized BrokerCheck
    database,” and that “[s]tatements about the termination of Registered Persons which indicate that
    an employee was incompetent or dishonest can severely impair their ability to obtain employment
    in the financial services industry.” Mr. Munizzi alleged he had been “permanently injured by
    UBS’s false and inaccurate reasons for termination” and that UBS had injured Mr. Munizzi
    “knowingly and with reckless disregard for [his] wellbeing and future ability to find employment.”
    Mr. Munizzi sought, as relief, expungement and modification of the form U5, compensatory and
    punitive damages, attorney fees, and interest.
    ¶ 12   The parties arbitrated the claims before a three-member panel of the FINRA Office of
    Dispute Resolution. The hearing occurred over 13 days between June and November 2019 and
    included testimony from 17 witnesses and the admission of 243 exhibits.
    ¶ 13   The panel issued its arbitration award on December 11, 2019, finding UBS liable for
    $3,149,656 in compensatory damages, plus interest on the portion of that award that represented
    Mr. Munizzi’s severance pay; $7.5 million in punitive damages; $496,753.36 in attorney fees; and
    $24,381.50 in costs. The arbitration award stated that the panel also “recommends the
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    No. 1-20-1237
    expungement of the Reason for Termination and Termination Explanation in Section 3 of the form
    U5” filed by UBS regarding Mr. Munizzi. The arbitration award directed UBS to change the reason
    for termination to “Other” and the termination explanation to “Terminated without cause.” The
    arbitration award said that this expungement was recommended “based on the defamatory nature
    of the information.”
    ¶ 14   On December 13, 2019, Mr. Munizzi filed a motion to confirm his arbitration award in the
    circuit court pursuant to section 11 of the Uniform Arbitration Act (Arbitration Act) (710 ILCS
    5/11 (West 2018)).
    ¶ 15   On January 10, 2020, UBS filed a motion to vacate or modify the arbitration award. UBS
    argued then, as it does now, that the award should be vacated because it violated an explicit Illinois
    public policy—namely, the policy “favoring protection of the investing public through the
    disclosure of information concerning negligent or dishonest securities professionals.” UBS also
    argued that the award should be vacated because it was against the manifest weight of the evidence.
    In support of its motion, UBS attached excerpts from the arbitration hearing, the form U5 UBS
    filled out with respect to firing Mr. Munizzi, and Mr. Munizzi’s amended statement of claim.
    ¶ 16   On October 21, 2020, the circuit court granted Mr. Munizzi’s motion to confirm the
    arbitration award and denied UBS’s motion to vacate the award. In its oral ruling, the court found
    that UBS had not shown the arbitration award was against the manifest weight of the evidence. In
    response to UBS’s public policy argument, the court said that, even if there was a public policy
    exception:
    “I find that UBS has not made the requisite showing that it is entitled to have the award
    vacated. And that’s because after a hearing before three arbitrators there was testimony
    heard and evidence presented and the panel found that the statements made by UBS were
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    No. 1-20-1237
    essentially not true. The panel specifically stated that certain portions of the U-5 form
    should be expunged based on the defamatory nature of the information. And by definition,
    defamatory means damaging the reputation by writing bad things that are not true.
    Also, the panel awarded plaintiff compensatory and punitive damages for his claim
    of defamation and violation of the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act and tortious
    interference with prospective economic advantage. The panel, in short, found that UBS
    was not truthful and, thus, providing relief to UBS based on the public policy would require
    this Court to improperly reject the findings of the panel and the Court cannot do that so,
    therefore, the arbitration award will be confirmed.”
    ¶ 17   On November 5, 2020, the circuit court entered judgment in favor of Mr. Munizzi for a
    total award of $11,170,790.86 as awarded by the arbitrators, plus additional attorney fees and costs
    in defending the award of $97,604.30, and $908,965.20 in interest from the date of the award.
    ¶ 18   This appeal followed.
    ¶ 19                                   II. JURISDICTION
    ¶ 20   The circuit court granted Mr. Munizzi’s motion to confirm the arbitration award and denied
    UBS’s motion to vacate the award on October 21, 2020, entering final judgment against UBS on
    November 5, 2020. UBS timely filed a notice of appeal on November 17, 2020. We have
    jurisdiction pursuant to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 301 (eff. Feb. 1, 1994) and Rule 303 (eff. July
    1, 2017), governing appeals from final judgments entered by the circuit court in civil cases.
    ¶ 21                                     III. ANALYSIS
    ¶ 22   A reviewing court will vacate an arbitration award “only in extraordinary circumstances”
    (Yorulmazoglu v. Lake Forest Hospital, 
    359 Ill. App. 3d 554
    , 564 (2005)), and must construe such
    awards, whenever possible, “so as to uphold their validity” (Rauh v. Rockford Products Corp., 143
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    No. 1-20-
    1237 Ill. 2d 377
    , 386 (1991)). The limited circumstances under which a reviewing court can modify or
    vacate an arbitration award are set forth in the Arbitration Act, which states:
    “(a) Upon application of a party, the court shall vacate an award where:
    (1) The award was procured by corruption, fraud or other undue means;
    (2) There was evident partiality by an arbitrator appointed as a neutral or corruption
    in any one of the arbitrators or misconduct prejudicing the rights of any party;
    (3) The arbitrators exceeded their powers;
    (4) The arbitrators refused to postpone the hearing upon sufficient cause being
    shown thereof or refused to hear evidence material to the controversy or otherwise so
    conducted the hearing, contrary to the provisions of Section 5, as to prejudice substantially
    the rights of a party; or
    (5) There was no arbitration agreement and the issue was not adversely determined
    in proceedings under Section 2 and the party did not participate in the arbitration hearing
    without raising the objection ***.” 710 ILCS 5/12 (West 2018).
    ¶ 23   Judicial review of an arbitration award is “more limited than appellate review of a trial
    court’s decision.” Rauh, 143 Ill. 2d at 394. When reviewing arbitration awards, “there is a
    presumption that the arbitrator did not exceed [their] authority.” Id. at 386. Additionally, an award
    will not be set aside “because of errors in judgment or a mistake of law or fact.” Galasso v. KNS
    Cos., 
    364 Ill. App. 3d 124
    , 130 (2006). This limited scope of review reflects the principle that an
    “arbitration award should be the end, not the beginning, of litigation.” Perkins Restaurants
    Operating Co. v. Van Den Bergh Foods Co., 
    276 Ill. App. 3d 305
    , 309 (1995).
    ¶ 24   UBS does not cite any of the bases set out in the Arbitration Act for overturning an
    arbitration award. Instead, UBS urges this court to vacate or modify the arbitration award because
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    No. 1-20-1237
    it violates a “well-defined and dominant” public policy favoring the disclosure of information
    regarding negligent or dishonest conduct of securities professionals. UBS also argues that the
    award should be vacated because the circuit court erroneously concluded that it was bound by the
    arbitrators’ findings. Finally, UBS argues in the alternative that this court should vacate the
    punitive damages award because it was excessive and contrary to public policy and the law
    regarding defamation. We consider each of these arguments in turn.
    ¶ 25                                A. Public Policy Exception
    ¶ 26   UBS argues that the arbitration award should be vacated because it “contravenes Illinois’s
    well-defined and explicit public policy favoring the protection of the public through the full
    disclosure of information concerning dishonest or negligent conduct by securities professionals.”
    UBS argues that the arbitration award penalizes it for “acting in direct furtherance” of this public
    policy and that enforcing the award will “chill the very conduct that federal and state law and
    Illinois public policy demands.” Mr. Munizzi responds that public policy arguments are limited to
    arbitration awards arising from a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), and since this award
    does not arise from a CBA, the public policy exception does not apply here.
    ¶ 27   The Arbitration Act specifically distinguishes awards arising from a CBA from other
    arbitration awards. Section 12(e) of the Act states:
    “Nothing in this Section or any other Section of this Act shall apply to the vacating,
    modifying, or correcting of any award entered as a result of an arbitration agreement which
    is a part of or pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement; and the grounds for vacating,
    modifying, or correcting such an award shall be those which existed prior to the enactment
    of this Act.” (Emphasis added.) 710 ILCS 5/12 (West 2018).
    ¶ 28   Since the Arbitration Act was enacted in Illinois in 1961, our courts have continued to
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    recognize the rationale, grounded in common law, to vacate arbitration awards that are “repugnant
    to *** public policy” when they arise in collective bargaining cases. American Federation of State,
    County & Municipal Employees, Council 31 v. Department of Central Management Services, 
    173 Ill. 2d 299
    , 307 (1996) (AFSCME). As those courts have recognized, applying the public policy
    exception requires a two-step analysis in which the reviewing court must determine (1) “whether
    a well-defined and dominant public policy can be identified” and, if so, (2) “whether the
    arbitrator’s award, as reflected in his interpretation of the agreement, violated the public policy.”
    
    Id. at 307-08
    . In addition to being well-defined and dominant, the public policy identified must
    also be ascertainable “by reference to the laws and legal precedents and not from generalized
    considerations of supposed public interests.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) W.R. Grace &
    Co. v. Local Union 759, 
    461 U.S. 757
    , 766 (1983).
    ¶ 29   The primary cases cited by both parties involve arbitration awards arising from a CBA. In
    AFSCME, the Illinois Supreme Court stated that “the historical context of the [public policy]
    exception is grounded in common law” and, therefore, “a court will not enforce a collective-
    bargaining agreement that is repugnant to established norms of public policy.” (Emphasis added.)
    AFSCME, 
    173 Ill. 2d at 307
    . Rather than focusing on the award itself, these cases also tend to
    center on whether the CBA, as interpreted by the arbitrator, violates an explicit public policy. For
    example, in City of Chicago v. Fraternal Order of Police, 
    2020 IL 124831
    , ¶ 25, the court noted
    that “[t]he public-policy exception is a narrow one—one that is to be invoked only when a party
    clearly shows enforcement of the contract, as interpreted by the arbitrator, contravenes some
    explicit public policy.” In that case, our supreme court found that an arbitration award requiring
    the city to destroy disciplinary records after five years violated an explicit public policy regarding
    the preservation of such records. Obviously, these concerns about interpreting an ongoing CBA
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    No. 1-20-1237
    do not directly apply in this case.
    ¶ 30   UBS primarily relies on two cases to support its argument that the public policy exception
    extends to awards not arising from a CBA: Heatherly v. Rodman & Renshaw, Inc., 
    287 Ill. App. 3d 372
     (1997), and Colmar v. Fremantlemedia North America, Inc., 
    344 Ill. App. 3d 977
     (2003).
    According to UBS, the Heatherly and Colmar courts “expressly held that the public policy
    exception applied to non-CBA arbitrations” because that determination was “the essential first step
    in the legal analysis applied by both courts, and therefore constitutes a holding of both courts.”
    ¶ 31   We reject UBS’s reading of these cases. Both cases do indeed involve arbitration awards
    that do not arise from a CBA, but neither case comes anywhere close to “expressly” holding that
    the public policy exception applies outside of CBA arbitrations. Rather, both cases found the
    exception inapplicable and did so with no analysis of whether the exception might apply outside
    of the CBA context.
    ¶ 32   In Colmar, the court’s “analysis” of the public policy exception was limited to four
    sentences, in which it described the exception, stated the test, then concluded that the plaintiff
    “fail[ed] to meet its burden by not identifying a well-defined and dominant public policy.” Colmar,
    344 Ill. App. 3d at 993. There was no express “determination” in that case that the public policy
    exception applied.
    ¶ 33   The court in Heatherly included more discussion of the exception, beginning with the two-
    step test used to determine if the award violated public policy. 287 Ill. App. 3d at 376. The court
    discussed several cases in which a “well-defined and dominant” public policy was or was not
    identified. (Internal quotation marks omitted.) Id. at 377. However, every case cited in Heatherly
    in support of this analysis involved an arbitration award arising from a CBA. See id. at 376-79
    (cases cited therein). The Heatherly court did not acknowledge this, but instead determined that
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    No. 1-20-1237
    the acts at issue did “not rise to the level of the sort of immoral or illegal acts that are so repugnant
    to public policy that an arbitration award based upon them must be vacated.” Id. at 378.
    ¶ 34    In neither of these cases did the court specifically consider whether the public policy
    exception applies outside of the CBA context. In short, although UBS is correct that both Colmar
    and Heatherly considered the public policy exception in the context of arbitration awards not
    arising from a CBA, the courts found that the exception did not apply. Moreover, the courts in
    those cases offered no rationale for extending the public policy exception to non-CBA arbitrations,
    nor did they give any consideration to the fact that the Arbitration Act treats CBAs differently and
    lists five specific bases for vacating a non-CBA arbitration award.
    ¶ 35    The language of the Arbitration Act strongly suggests that the public policy exception has
    no application in this case. Rather, the Arbitration Act specifies different treatment for awards
    arising from a CBA and gives five specific reasons in section 12(a) that other arbitration awards
    can be modified or vacated. Supreme court cases that have applied the public policy exception
    have stressed the fact that there is an ongoing CBA and that it would be contrary to the public
    policy of this state to apply that CBA in the manner that the arbitrator’s ruling mandated. UBS has
    offered no precedent in which a court has vacated an arbitration award on public policy grounds,
    outside of the collective bargaining context. Thus, we are not convinced that there is any basis for
    applying the public policy exception in this case.
    ¶ 36    Moreover, we agree with the circuit court that, even if the public policy exception did
    apply, the award in this case does not violate any “well-defined and dominant” public policy. UBS
    argues that the award should be overturned or modified because it violates an explicit Illinois
    public policy “favoring protection of the investing public through the disclosure of information
    concerning negligent or dishonest securities professionals.” UBS states that the “[f]orm U5’s
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    effectiveness *** depends on employers making full and frank disclosures” and that FINRA’s by-
    laws make clear that “[c]andid and accurate disclosure of a regulatory or disciplinary problem ***
    is critical” See Nat’l Ass’n of Securities Dealers, Notice to Members 97-77 (Nov.
    1997), https://www.finra.org/sites/default/files/NoticeDocument/p004412.pdf [https://perma.cc/3
    HHS-ST93].
    ¶ 37   The arbitration panel recommended the expungement of the reason for termination and
    termination explanation on the form U5 “based on the defamatory nature of the information.” In
    doing so, it cited Republic Tobacco Co. v. North Atlantic Trading Co., 
    381 F.3d 717
    , 726 (7th Cir.
    2004), which states that to succeed on a defamation claim under Illinois law, the plaintiff must
    show “that the defendant *** made a false statement concerning him” (internal quotation marks
    omitted) that was then published and caused damage to the plaintiff. Thus, the arbitration award
    reflects that the arbitration panel found that UBS made false statements about Mr. Munizzi.
    Therefore, the disclosures on the form U5 were neither “frank” nor “accurate.” There is no public
    policy favoring false or defamatory disclosures by employers.
    ¶ 38                          B. The Arbitration Panel’s Findings
    ¶ 39   UBS also argues the circuit court erred in determining that the arbitration panel’s factual
    findings “were binding on the court.” UBS argues that courts can overturn arbitration awards when
    “the record *** belies the arbitrator’s conclusions” (Chicago Fire Fighters Union Local No. 2 v.
    City of Chicago, 
    323 Ill. App. 3d 168
    , 180 (2001)) and contends that here the circuit court
    erroneously refused to consider the “undisputed facts of record.”
    ¶ 40   We note that courts have authority to vacate an arbitration award only on limited bases
    (710 ILCS 5/12 (West 2018)) and that courts are generally “bound by the arbitrator’s view of the
    facts” (County of De Witt v. American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees,
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    No. 1-20-1237
    Council 31, 
    298 Ill. App. 3d 634
    , 639 (1998)).
    ¶ 41   In this case, UBS has forfeited any argument that the arbitrators’ factual findings were not
    supported by the record because UBS failed to supply this court with a complete record of the
    arbitration hearing. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 323(a) (eff. July 1, 2017) requires that the record
    on appeal “include all the evidence pertinent to the issues on appeal.” However, as noted above,
    UBS did not provide a complete and official record. Instead, UBS provided this court with portions
    of documents and excerpts of testimony. Thus, this court has no basis for comparing the arbitrators’
    factual conclusions with the evidence presented, and the circuit court correctly recognized that the
    arbitrators’ factual findings are therefore binding.
    ¶ 42                                    C. Punitive Damages
    ¶ 43   UBS does not dispute that the FINRA arbitration panel was authorized to award punitive
    damages. Instead, UBS argues, again relying on public policy, that if the award is not vacated in
    its entirety, it should be modified to eliminate the punitive damages. According to UBS, enforcing
    punitive damage awards based on form U5 disclosures “would eviscerate” Illinois public policy
    favoring protection of the public by encouraging disclosure of information about the competence
    of securities professionals. UBS argues that, if punitive damages are permissible when “the
    undisputed record establishes that the information disclosed on the form U5 was fully supported
    by the facts,” then securities firms will be “strongly discourage[d] *** from providing full and
    frank information on the form U5.”
    ¶ 44   Again, this court is bound by the arbitrators’ finding that UBS’s disclosure was defamatory.
    Thus, this court cannot accept UBS’s premise that it disclosed information that was “fully
    supported by facts.” This is particularly true where, as here, we have not been provided with a full
    record. We therefore reject the argument that this award would disincentivize securities firms from
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    No. 1-20-1237
    providing complete and accurate information on similar disclosures. Moreover, for all the reasons
    outlined above, we are not convinced UBS’s public policy argument plays any role in this case.
    ¶ 45   UBS also argues that this court should reverse because the arbitrators made a legal error,
    where an award of punitive damages requires that the defamatory statements were made with
    “actual malice,” which UBS asserts was not found in this case. There are two flaws in this
    argument.
    ¶ 46   First, an error of law does not provide a basis for overturning an arbitration decision.
    Galasso, 364 Ill. App. 3d at 130 (“[A]n arbitrator’s award will not even be set aside because of
    errors in judgment or a mistake of law or fact.”).
    ¶ 47   Second, UBS has not persuaded us that any legal error was made here or that the arbitrators
    did not find “actual malice.” The arbitration award states that punitive damages are awarded
    “pursuant to Republic Tobacco Co. v. North Atlantic Trading Co., 
    381 F.3d 717
     (7th Cir. 2004)
    and Baravati v. Josephthal, Lyon & Ross, Inc., 
    28 F.3d 704
     (7th Cir. 1994).” In Republic Tobacco,
    the Seventh Circuit specifically said that “[p]unitive damages are available under Illinois law upon
    proof of actual malice.” Republic Tobacco, 
    381 F.3d at 735
    . In Baravati, the Seventh Circuit held
    that in an arbitration which, like this case, involved a defamation claim by a terminated securities
    broker, the arbitrators did not exceed their powers in awarding punitive damages. Baravati,
    
    28 F.3d at 710-11
    . The arbitrators’ statement in this case that the punitive damages were awarded
    “pursuant to Republic Tobacco” reflects the arbitrators’ understanding that punitive damages are
    available when there is proof of actual malice and defeats UBS’s argument that the arbitrators
    failed to find such proof in the case before them.
    ¶ 48                                     D. Attorney Fees
    ¶ 49   Mr. Munizzi requests that, pursuant to section 14 of the Wage Act (820 ILCS 115/14 (West
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    2018)), we remand to the circuit court to allow him to present a petition for fees incurred during
    this appeal. UBS has not responded to this request, and we see no basis for denying it.
    ¶ 50                                    IV. CONCLUSION
    ¶ 51   For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court and remand for Mr.
    Munizzi to file a petition for fees incurred during this appeal.
    ¶ 52   Affirmed and remanded.
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    No. 1-20-1237
    No. 1-20-1237
    Cite as:                 Munizzi v. UBS       Financial   Services,   Inc.,   
    2021 IL App (1st) 201237
    Decision Under Review:   Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook County, No. 19-CH-
    14398; the Hon. Caroline Kate Moreland, Judge, presiding.
    Attorneys                Brain        J. Poronsky and  J.      Matthew      Haws,
    for                      of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, of Chicago, and Thomas
    Appellant:               G. Hungar, of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, of Washington,
    D.C., for appellant.
    Attorneys                Steven P. Gomberg and Amy J. Kanarowski, of Lynch Thompson
    for                      LLP, of Chicago, for appellee.
    Appellee:
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