Opinion ID: 735522
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Vincent Lazara

Text: 45 Vincent Lazara and Jay Jablonski (considered separately below) were PSI brokers who left to work for the Smith Barney firm. Both had purchased partnerships while PSI employees. 46 Partnerships sold by Lazara and Jablonski became the subject of arbitration proceedings brought by customers. In 1991 and 1992, PSI lost some of these arbitration proceedings and settled some others. At that time, PSI filed Form U-5s with the SEC reporting that Lazara and Jablonski had committed wrongdoing with respect to those customers. As a result, the brokers were fired by Smith Barney, have been unable to find other employment, and commenced arbitration proceedings against PSI regarding the information provided on the U-5s. 47 Lazara moved in 1991, and sent word of his change of address to PSI. Notice of the class action, however, was sent to Lazara's former address; he never received it. PSI's mailing list was compiled from three sources, one of which was PSI's direct investment group mailing list. Apparently Lazara's address was not corrected on that particular list. Lazara's first notice of the class action was November 30, 1995, when PSI demanded that the arbitration be dismissed. He did not timely opt out. 48 Lazara participated in the joint brokers' motion for a late opt out, which was denied on January 18. 49 The denial of the motion as to Lazara was a tough (as opposed to an indulgent) exercise of discretion, but we cannot say that discretion was abused. Non-receipt of mailed notice does not render the notice flawed. See Weigner v. City of New York, 852 F.2d 646, 649 (2d Cir.1988). Lazara could have obtained notice from any of the published sources or the widespread media coverage of the settlement. It was not an abuse of discretion for Judge Pollack to determine that--even assuming that Lazara's neglect was excusable--the prejudice to PSI, and the prejudice to the settlement process when the opt outs are considered in the aggregate, outweighed the prejudice to Lazara. See Grinnell, 490 F.2d at 1186.