Ashburn

Plaintiffs and appellants (appellants) are five former employees of Pacific Bell who took early retirement, with the option to take a pension or a lump-sum payment. All appellants chose the lump sum, persuaded to do so by respondent Sharon Kearney, with whom each appellant had significant interaction, having first learned of her from presentations made at the Pacific Bell premises. And all appellants came to be clients of Kearney, in connection with which they signed some documents — exactly what documents and how they came to be signed is the subject of vigorous dispute — by which Kearney came to manage and invest appellants’ retirement proceeds, in some cases for years. Dissatisfied, appellants sued Kearney and AIG Financial Advisors, Inc. (AIGFA), the successor to the company where Kearney originally worked.

AIGFA filed a petition to compel arbitration, supported in part by a declaration of Kearney. Appellants filed vigorous opposition, which included direct contradiction of many of Kearney’s factual representations. Without holding an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted the petition, ordering appellants’ claims to arbitration. That arbitration occurred, with…