Howard Hanna is one of several defendants in the Barton 2 case, which was brought by homebuyers and is much larger than some of the better-known cases.
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A massive commission lawsuit filed by Illinois homebuyers now has one less defendant after the claim against Howard Hanna was dismissed this week.
in a document Seven plaintiffs in the “Batton 2” case filed Monday announced they are voluntarily dismissing all claims against Howard Hanna. The filing provides no other details, saying only that “dismissal is appropriate because Howard Hanna Real Estate Services has not yet served an answer or motion for summary judgment.”
The claims were dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning they could be re-raised again at a later date.
Batton 2 began in November, and came on the heels of a jury siding with the home seller plaintiff in a case called Sitzer | Burnett. The jury in that lawsuit specifically agreed with the plaintiffs that the National Association of Realtors and several major franchisors conspired to keep real estate costs high for consumers.
The Batton 2 case, like all recent Commission proceedings, is named after its main defendant, in this case a woman named Mya Batton, and is part of a series of so-called One of the “imitation” cases.
However, Batton 2 is also atypical in several ways. First, Barton and the other plaintiffs are homebuyers, whereas most other commission lawsuits are brought by sellers. The plaintiffs in Batton 2 specifically argued that they paid too high a price when purchasing their homes due to anticompetitive conduct by major real estate companies.
The scope of the case is also exponentially larger than Sitzer | Burnett; Batton 2 and a similar lawsuit previously titled Batton 1 all seek class action certification on behalf of a “nationwide class” and a broad “damages class.” If these cases were so certified, they would likely represent millions of real estate consumers across the United States rather than a limited number of consumers in smaller jurisdictions, as was the case in Sitzer | Burnett.
In addition to Howard Hanna, defendants in the Batton 2 case include Compass, eXp World Holdings, Redfin, Weichert Realtors and United Real Estate.
News first broke about Howard Hanna being fired from Patton 2 report Yahoo Finance.
Inman has reached out to attorneys representing Howard Hanna and the plaintiffs in the case and will update this story with any comment they provide.
Although the charges against Howard Hanna were dismissed, “Batton 2” and numerous other board lawsuits continue to wind their way through the legal system. So far, only Sitzer | Burnett has gone to trial, but some major industry players — Anywhere, RE/MAX and Keller Williams — have offered to settle in some cases.
However, the overall outcome of the growing number of commission lawsuits remains unclear. Many in the industry speculate that these cases could lead to dramatic changes, such as consumers reducing their use of buyer’s agents, or reducing the number of buyer’s agents altogether. In response, some in the industry have also called for new measures, such as a focus on buyer agent contracts, while others have responded by changing company policies or training.
But regardless, whatever collective impact these cases ultimately have, it’s likely to be significant.
Email Jim Dalrymple II
