Fed. Sec. L. Rep. P 94,768 Phil A. Street and Clyde H. Street v. J.C. Bradford & Company

BERTELSMAN, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION This is a securities/commodities fraud action, originally brought in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. It alleges a broker’s violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, 7 U.S.C. §§ 6, 6a, 6c, 6d, 6o and 25; the Securities Act of 1933,15 U.S.C. §§ 111 and 77q; the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, § 78(b), 17 C.F.R. §§ 240.10b-5 and 240.-17a-3; and the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1962 and 1964;[1] and several pendent state claims. Appellants (plaintiffs in the court below) challenge on appeal the district court’s summary judgment orders dismissing all of plaintiffs’ claims and upholding defendants’ counterclaim for a deficiency balance due on plaintiffs’ account.

In the interests of brevity, the appellees are referred to collectively to include J.C. Bradford & Co., the commodities exchange brokerage firm; Ken Graybeal, a local securities broker authorized only to accept and transmit commodities trades to a commodities broker in another of the firm’s offices; Robert McCrackin, Douglas 0. Kitchens, and Ray Richardson, all commodities brokers in the J.C. Bradford organization alleged to have advised appellants or transacted trades for them. Graybeal was the main point of contact between appellants and the firm.