Transcript From Dismissal Hearing in Academy Litigation
The transcript of the court proceedings on Feb. 24, 2015, is now available. On that date, Judge Peter Flynn of the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, dismissed without prejudice all claims against the Academy—including any claims for injunctive or declaratory relief—that had been filed in December by a former president of the Society of Actuaries.
During the proceedings, Judge Flynn said that the “plaintiff’s position apparently is that his agreement to the procedures set forth in the bylaws of the organizations for the activities of the Actuarial Board for Counseling and Discipline only applies if he likes what the Board is doing. … Our court system is inclined not to want to overturn contractually agreed upon alternative dispute resolution mechanisms without some reason to do it.”
In dismissing the case, the court strongly affirmed that the U.S. actuarial profession may require members to have disciplinary complaints heard by the ABCD and not by the courts.