Trader Sues JPMorgan For $1Million Over Typo


JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is being sued by a trader who says he accepted a contract from the investment bank because a typographical error made him believe he would be paid 10 times what was actually offered.

Kai Herbert, a Switzerland-based currency trader, is suing JPMorgan for about 580,000 pounds ($920,000), his lawyers said at a trial in London this week. The original contract said Herbert’s annual pay would be 24 million rand ($3.1 million). JPMorgan blamed the mistake on a typographical error and said the figure should have been 2.4 million rand, according to court documents.


This is pretty hilarious. Do you think he'll win the case? Would you do the same?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-23/jpmorgan…

 
Boreed:
Scum... I'd kill for that job...

Why is he scum? It's JPM's fault, and he's suing for less than half of the difference between 2.4M rand and 24M rand. To be fair, he probably should have reacted differently than not showing up for work, but it's JPM's fuck up.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 
Best Response
ProspectiveMonkey:
.This assumes that a judge will even hear the case

It's already in front of a Judge so shyhhhh

“That must have been the moment your heart sank,” Judge Henry Globe said at the trial this week, referring to when Herbert discovered the mistake. Herbert resigned from UBS AG (UBSN) in June 2010 following the offer from JPMorgan to relocate to Johannesburg."

Did you take business law and study contract?

"if the trader signed the contract in good faith it is probably binding. JPMorgan will have to prove he knew there was a mistake in the contract but signed it anyway.” Adrian Crawford, an employment lawyer at Kingsley Napley LLP in London who isn’t involved in the case, said in a phone interview.

Power and Money do not change men; they only unmask them
 
ProspectiveMonkey:
.This assumes that a judge will even hear the case

It's already in front of a Judge so shyhhhh

“That must have been the moment your heart sank,” Judge Henry Globe said at the trial this week, referring to when Herbert discovered the mistake. Herbert resigned from UBS AG (UBSN) in June 2010 following the offer from JPMorgan to relocate to Johannesburg."

Did you take business law and study contract?

"if the trader signed the contract in good faith it is probably binding. JPMorgan will have to prove he knew there was a mistake in the contract but signed it anyway.” Adrian Crawford, an employment lawyer at Kingsley Napley LLP in London who isn’t involved in the case, said in a phone interview.

Sorry, double post.

Power and Money do not change men; they only unmask them
 
ProspectiveMonkey:
absolutely unreasonable that a person deserving around 300k would honestly believe he deserves to get paid $3.1 million.*

Listen to him kid:

IamObama:
JPM would be the first to fire him if he made such a typo on a trade...He should get paid every penny of the original contract
Power and Money do not change men; they only unmask them
 
FlakieBear:
ProspectiveMonkey:
absolutely unreasonable that a person deserving around 300k would honestly believe he deserves to get paid $3.1 million.*

Listen to him kid:

IamObama:
JPM would be the first to fire him if he made such a typo on a trade...He should get paid every penny of the original contract

Because HR people who pose no risk to the firm are held to the same standard as traders who are given millions to monitor/invest/sell in the financial markets everyday.

 

What does deserve have to do with anything? He should settle for some arbitrary amount and not what the contract says? Screw JPM, I'd sue for the full amount including damages for wasting my time -- guy has to find a new job now and has his name smeared all over the internet as some kind of pain in the ass when all he did was sign the contract put in front of him.

 
redevils89:
He'll never win. Although it was a fault by JPM, no reasonable person would be convinced that he/she would get paid that much.

Anyways, very interesting and a good try!

Then why even have contracts? The actual amount on the contract is pretty arbitrary. It could have 24 billion rand. The point is, JPM created the contract, they both read, and they both signed it. It's not his fault that JPM can't get their shit together. I hope he gets the full amount -- he "deserves" nothing less.

 
redevils89:
He'll never win. Although it was a fault by JPM, no reasonable person would be convinced that he/she would get paid that much.

Anyways, very interesting and a good try!

With the explanations above, do you realize the stupidity of your comment now? You do understand that courts primarily judge matters of form, right?

It always amazes me how people usually take legality for morality and vice versa.

 

To answer the question. This is very simple. In a contract matter, the contract is always construed to be in favor of the non-authoring party. So, if JPM writes the contract and they fuck up with a typo, then they are held liable for the amount in the typo. It's a basic rule of contract law. The guy deserves his 24MM Rand. That's the end of story. I hope the courts award him this money and teach JPM a lesson on shoddy contract writing skills.

 
Frieds:
To answer the question. This is very simple. In a contract matter, the contract is always construed to be in favor of the non-authoring party. So, if JPM writes the contract and they fuck up with a typo, then they are held liable for the amount in the typo. It's a basic rule of contract law. The guy deserves his 24MM Rand. That's the end of story. I hope the courts award him this money and teach JPM a lesson on shoddy contract writing skills.

100% correct. He signed it in good faith

JPM had authority in that case

Contract is bidding.

It's not about how much he should earn for the position that he got.

It's all about contract law

Power and Money do not change men; they only unmask them
 
FlakieBear:
Frieds:
To answer the question. This is very simple. In a contract matter, the contract is always construed to be in favor of the non-authoring party. So, if JPM writes the contract and they fuck up with a typo, then they are held liable for the amount in the typo. It's a basic rule of contract law. The guy deserves his 24MM Rand. That's the end of story. I hope the courts award him this money and teach JPM a lesson on shoddy contract writing skills.

100% correct. He signed it in good faith

JPM had authority in that case

Contract is bidding.

It's not about how much he should earn for the position that he got.

It's all about contract law

He did not sign it in good faith. That's the whole point. You just don't get offered 10x a normal salary out of the blue and not go back to HR and ask clarifying questions. A reasonable person would have ask for more information as to the type of work and justification for a $3.1 million salary unless they were a complete narcissist and believed they were entitled to such a thing.

 
Frieds:
To answer the question. This is very simple. In a contract matter, the contract is always construed to be in favor of the non-authoring party. So, if JPM writes the contract and they fuck up with a typo, then they are held liable for the amount in the typo. It's a basic rule of contract law. The guy deserves his 24MM Rand. That's the end of story. I hope the courts award him this money and teach JPM a lesson on shoddy contract writing skills.

This. It's not even a discussion point. That's why it's called contract law.

 

What you guys keep missing is the fact that he didn't show up for work. JPM agreed to pay him 3.1MM to do the job. If he doesn't show up for work because he finds out they actually meant 310K, then they don't owe him shit. If instead he went to work and after a year, his total comp was 310K, he could have sued JPM then.

-MBP
 
manbearpig:
What you guys keep missing is the fact that he didn't show up for work. JPM agreed to pay him 3.1MM to do the job. If he doesn't show up for work because he finds out they actually meant 310K, then they don't owe him shit. If instead he went to work and after a year, his total comp was 310K, he could have sued JPM then.

How many days of work should he miss to void the contract?

This thing has so much subtleties.

Power and Money do not change men; they only unmask them
 

Firstly, it was clearly a case of unilateral mistake, which would lead to the contract being voidable, or resolved in equity. Of course JP Morgan won that one.

The Trader would have been put on notice, because the standard is based on that of a reasonable person, and clearly being offered 10x a reasonable salary is one which would be apparent to a reasonable person.

It's simple logic to any student who's passed contract law. Don't know how a lawyer didn't explain that to the client, and it got before a judge, to me that could be seen to be professional negligence on his (the lawyer's) part.

Plus the trader failed to mitigate his losses.

 
Aimez:
Firstly, it was clearly a case of unilateral mistake, which would lead to the contract being voidable, or resolved in equity. Of course JP Morgan won that one.

The Trader would have been put on notice, because the standard is based on that of a reasonable person, and clearly being offered 10x a reasonable salary is one which would be apparent to a reasonable person.

It's simple logic to any student who's passed contract law. Don't know how a lawyer didn't explain that to the client, and it got before a judge, to me that could be seen to be professional negligence on his (the lawyer's) part.

Plus the trader failed to mitigate his losses.

Stop with reviving these old threads that are irrelevant now. Thank you kindly
 
SirBarney:
Aimez:
Firstly, it was clearly a case of unilateral mistake, which would lead to the contract being voidable, or resolved in equity. Of course JP Morgan won that one.

The Trader would have been put on notice, because the standard is based on that of a reasonable person, and clearly being offered 10x a reasonable salary is one which would be apparent to a reasonable person.

It's simple logic to any student who's passed contract law. Don't know how a lawyer didn't explain that to the client, and it got before a judge, to me that could be seen to be professional negligence on his (the lawyer's) part.

Plus the trader failed to mitigate his losses.

Stop with reviving these old threads that are irrelevant now. Thank you kindly

Sorry!

 

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