SITES | Burnett plaintiffs are asking the court to order the Berkshire Hathaway affiliate to pay most of the nearly $5.4 billion in damages following a settlement between NAR, Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX.
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Now most defendants have agreed to settle bombshell | Sitzer | American HomeServices could be liable for remaining damages in the Burnett case, totaling $4.7 billion.
On March 18, attorneys for Sitzer | Burnett plaintiffs filed suit Motion for judgment They asked the court to order HomeServices to pay the vast majority of damages awarded by a jury this fall.
Judge Stephen Baugh
On Oct. 31, jurors found that the National Association of Realtors, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, Anywhere, HomeServices and two of its subsidiaries, BHH Affiliates and HSF Affiliates, conspired to inflate the rates of broker commissions paid by home sellers. Juries awarded $1.78 billion in damages to approximately 500,000 Missouri homeowners. The trial was held in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri before Judge Stephen R. Bough.
Anywhere and RE/MAX settled before Sitzer | Burnett trial for $83.5 million and $55 million, respectively. Keller Williams settled on February 1 for $70 million, and NAR settled on March 15 for $418 million. Combined, the transaction value reached $626.5 million. None of the settlements have received final court approval.
In Monday’s filing, attorneys for the home seller plaintiffs formally asked Bove to triple the damages to $5.36 billion, as required by federal antitrust law, and for the HomeServices defendants to bear all costs after deducting that amount from other settlement amounts. Amount of compensation: USD 4,729,432,616. This will be 88% of the triple bonus.
The plaintiff also seeks compensation for attorney’s fees and litigation costs, as well as interest on the damages at an annual rate of 5.4%, compounded annually, starting the day after the judgment (November 1).
“The jury found that all defendants ‘knowingly and willingly joined the conspiracy,'” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. “Defendants found to be complicit shall be jointly and severally liable for all damages resulting from the conspiracy.”
The settlements with KW, Anywhere and RE/MAX will take at least two months to be finalized, and the settlement with NAR “will take several more months,” they added. But while the settlement process among NAR, Keller Williams, Anywhere and RE/MAX continues to move forward, there is no valid reason to delay final judgment against the HomeServices defendants. “
Chris Kelly
Asked to comment on the motion and whether HomeServices plans to settle, HomeServices executive vice president Chris Kelly told Inman, “As a matter of law, damages from antitrust rulings triple. Plaintiffs yesterday The motion put forward, while premature, was expected.”
“HomeServices will continue to aggressively pursue all options to resolve the pending litigation in which we are involved.”
HomeServices, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has proven tenacious in its defense in the case.Most recently, on February 2, HomeServices submitted a petition A petition for “certiorari” was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the court to review an August ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit that affirmed a district court’s ruling that HomeServices cannot enforce arbitration agreements signed by its seller customers. franchisee, because the contract entered into by the seller is not directly with HomeServices.
The ruling clears the way for HomeServices and its subsidiaries to stand trial as defendants in the Sitzer | court. October’s Burnett trial – HomeServices says this trial should never have happened because the home seller plaintiffs signed an arbitration agreement waiving their right to file a class action lawsuit.
Read the motion:
Send an email to Andrea V. Brambila.
