The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
Brokerages excluded from NAR deal strike quick settlement in new lawsuit
Keel et al v. Washington Fine Properties LLC et al is a new class-action commission lawsuit. As with past cases, its plaintiffs are recent homesellers who sold with the use of an MLS, and alleged in their complaint a “conspiracy” to “impose, implement, follow and enforce anticompetitive National Association of REALTORS® (NAR)” supposedly designed to inflate commissions.
The suit was filed on Jan. 27, 2025 in Western Missouri District court to be overseen by Judge Stephen Bough, also overseeing Burnett.
Named defendants are two MLSs and several brokerages that were left uncovered in the NAR settlement, spread all across the country. Defendants are Side, House of Seven Gables Real Estate, Washington Fine Properties, JPAR Real Estate Services, Signature Premier Properties, First Team Real Estate-Orange County, Brooklyn MLS and Central New York Information Service (CYNIS).
The same day as the plaintiffs filed the complaint, defendants moved to settle and filed for preliminary approval. The defendants would collectively pay $10.57 million under this proposed settlement, which is described in the filling as “substantially similar to those reached in Gibson and Burnett.”
Judge Bough subsequently approved this motion on Feb. 4, 2025. As of Feb. 7, 2025, Side has filed for a stay in Keel “with the agreement of Plaintiffs and all other Defendants.”
Crye-Leike companies push for immunity in Gibson case
Crye-Leike, a full-service real estate company and one of the largest independent brokerages, has filed for immunity in the largest Burnett copycat suit known as “Gibson.” Crye-Leike’s argument hinges on the idea they should have been included in the NAR settlement that shielded brokerages with an under $2 billion transaction volume from further litigation.
Cry-Leike claimed the brokerage closed a total residential transaction volume of $1,745,601,747 in 2022, falling under the $2 billion bar. On Feb. 5, 2025, Steve A. Brown, president of residential sales for all Crye-Leike entities, said in a declaration the company should have been covered by the settlement.
Lawyers for the brokerage claimed that Crye-Leike does not constitute a single company, but six independently-operating ones—Crye-Leike Franchises, Inc.,Crye-Leike of Nashville, Inc., Crye-Leike of Arkansas, Inc., Crye-Leike of Mississippi, Inc., Crye-Leike South, Inc. and Adaro Realty, Inc.—which are connected only by the name Cry-Leike and that Harold Crye owns 100% of common stock in each company.
While all six companies pay an annual fee for Crye-Leike Inc.’s various support services, they have distinct management teams and file taxes separately. The figure used to exclude Crye-Leike from the settlement shielding instead groups the six companies, and their respective transaction volumes, together as a single whole, the defendants claimed.
The Gibson trial is tentatively scheduled to commence Nov. 8, 2027.
Defendants and plaintiffs in eXp sexual assault case request delayed timeline
Jennifer A. Lenze, an attorney representing plaintiff Anya Roberts in her lawsuit against eXp Realty (filed in the California Central District Court), filed a declaration on Feb. 5, 2025 proposing a new, delayed timeline for pre-trial procedures and the trial itself.
Under the attached timetable in Lenze’s declaration, the trial would begin Sep. 18, 2025 rather than April 28, 2025, with other deadlines pushed back as well.
Roberts, a former eXp agent, has claimed that two other former eXp agents—Michael Bjorkman and David Golden—both separately drugged and assaulted her at two separate company events. The suit further claimed that eXp was informed of Bjorkman and Golden’s alleged actions and refused to take action against them.
eXp has denied these claims and says the company has maintained a “zero tolerance for abuse, harassment or misconduct of any kind” among employees and associated independent agents.
Lenze attested in her declaration that the parties have “met and conferred several times” to iron out scheduling, including depositions. Depositions by Golden, eXp World Holdings Chairman and CEO Glenn Sanford and eXp recruiter Brent Gove have been delayed due to unspecified “discovery issues,” as claimed by Lenze.
