On January 13, 2026, the First Department issued a decision in Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. v. PEI Global Partners Holdings LLC, 2026 NY Slip Op. 00080, holding that a non-party to an arbitration was bound by the arbitration decision because they were in privity with a party to the arbitration, explaining:
Supreme Court properly dismissed the complaint on the ground of res judicata because defendant was in privity with the arbitration respondents. To determine if a party in the prior action is in privity with a nonparty to the prior action, we must consider whether the circumstances of the actual relationship, the mutuality of interests, and the manner in which the nonparty’s interests were represented in the earlier litigation established a functional representation such that the nonparty may be thought to have had a vicarious day in court. Here, individual bankers who were respondents in the arbitration are defendant’s principals and hold 100% of its equity. Moreover, all arbitration respondents, including the entity respondent, were aligned with defendant by common purpose and were represented by the same counsel in the arbitration as defendant is here.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).