Ramsay v. Texas Trading Co‪.‬

Less than a half hour before the cattle-futures markets closed December 23, 2003, Tom Ramsay appeared at Texas Trading Company, Inc.s Sulphur Springs office and wanted a personal account opened so he could sell "short" five cattle-futures contracts for his personal account through ADM Investor Services, Inc. (ADM), Texas Tradings clearing broker in Illinois. That is the scene Charles Dawson, the principal owner of Texas Trading, and his daughter (and then Texas Trading employee) Liz Harper described concerning that day. That day, Ramsay reportedly indicated that he did not have the time to sign an account agreement, so Harper reportedly delivered a form agreement to him as he left Texas Tradings office. Later, Harper signed the form agreement for Ramsay, though the testimony conflicts on whether he authorized that signature. Still later, pursuant to another term of the form agreement and after numerous Ramsay-initiated trades through the newly established account, Ramsays position, at that time, was liquidated to cover existing losses. Ramsay lost a large sum of money.