A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel awarded a former managing director for Merrill Lynch & Co. more than $512,500 in a wrongful termination case.

The panel ruled that the New York brokerage company, which is a unit of Bank of America Corp., wrongfully terminated Joseph J. Mattia from his position as a branch manager of Merrill’s flagship office in New York City.

Merrill fired Mattia, 53, on Dec. 1, 2008 and the company withheld his year-end compensation. “Merrill claimed that its year-end bonuses are discretionary, but we said argued it is part of [Mattia’s] annual compensation,” said Adam D. Mitzner, an attorney with Pavia & Harcourt LLP of New York, who represented Mattia.
 
“The case is important because, on one hand, Merrill and all the banks have publicly stated that they are obligated to give out certain bonuses and compensation. But, in this case they took the position that such payment is discretionary and obviously the panel disagreed,” Mitzner said.

In a one-sentence ruling issued Nov. 4, the panel awarded Mattia more than $500,000 in lost wages and $12,500 in hearing fees. The ruling became final after a 30-day appeal period expired without Merrill appealing the decision. A spokesman from Merrill would not comment on the arbitration panel’s decision.

Mattia originally filed the wrongful termination claim on Feb. 4. According to the initial complaint, he sought $1.5 million and an expungement of claims that he was terminated for cause. The expungement wasn’t granted by the panel According to publicly filed documents, Merrill claimed Mattia was fired because he forced a broker that worked for him to make a false filing to Merrill’s general counsel.