Do I have a case against one of top 3 brokerage houses?

[ravi_legal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? CA

I have a question on my employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). I called up my brokerage house (one of top 3 brokerage houses) to exercise and sell my ESPP shares on the last day before the shares expired. I opted to exercise and sell at 10am EST. The broker took my order and told me I should be expecting my cheque in the mail after I completed and faxed some forms. Later I get a letter stating that while some of my order went through the rest did not. The purported reason was that I had ESPP shares on an european stock exchange, not NYSE or NASDAQ, and that the stock market had closed in the european stock exchange already. The broker never informed me when taking the order that this was the case. Some of the stocks were exercised and sold. I did not receive any paperwork or in clear print what time the ESPP expired from the brokerage (the brokerage's defence was that the information was someplace on their website under general information in fine print- a fact I was not able to verify.)

Do I have a shot at getting my money back and for compensatory and punitive damages from the brokerage?

[Kiawah]

This doesn't even pass a reasonableness test.

You called in to do a transaction, on the last day possible, AFTER the exchange closed. It isn't possible for them to execute a transaction for you.

And your claim of damage is that they should have told you that they can't execute the trade.

Sorry, the blame falls on your side.