Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
Judges appear inclined to allow Anywhere copycat settlement to proceed
Two federal judges last week denied a series of requests from the Batton plaintiffs—including a motion to intervene in the Tuccori case, a bid to reassign cases to the Batton court and a motion for a preliminary injunction—as both courts signaled inclination to let the Anywhere Real Estate settlement proceed.
Judge Lindsay Jenkins denied the Batton plaintiffs’ intervention motion in Tuccori v. At World Properties without elaborating on her reasoning, while Judge LaShonda Hunt denied reassignment and the injunction, noting that the Batton plaintiffs could object at the Tuccori fairness hearing instead.
A new Batton motion to appoint interim class counsel across multiple cases drew significant skepticism from Hunt, who questioned why it was filed now given that Tuccori has been pending since 2024, though she allowed written arguments while the Tuccori settlement process plays out.
Anywhere’s counsel also asked Hunt to stay all remaining Batton litigation against it, arguing its homebuyer claims are fully resolved through the Tuccori and Burnett settlements, with Hunt encouraging the parties to confer first.
Fathom Realty settlement progress
On March 5, 2026, plaintiffs and Defendant Fathom Realty, LLC filed a joint motion to stay all proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois before Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins.
The motion seeks to pause all litigation deadlines against Fathom while the parties work to finalize a settlement agreement in principle they have already reached.
Fathom would potentially resolve the claims against it by opting into a previously court-approved class settlement—which received preliminary approval on October 16, 2025—by contributing a payment to the global settlement fund.
The parties argue the stay is warranted to conserve both judicial and party resources while maximizing the chance of a full resolution.
HomeServices parent company asks for immediate ruling in seller commission case
In the Gibson v. NAR commission lawsuit before Judge Stephen R. Bough in the Western District of Missouri, Berkshire Hathaway Energy Company (BHE)—parent company of HomeServices of America—filed a motion for summary judgment on March 4, arguing the case against it should be dismissed now as a matter of law.
BHE contends that because plaintiffs’ own theory treats BHE and HomeServices as a single enterprise under a Supreme Court doctrine, the prior Burnett settlement that released HomeServices from liability effectively released BHE as well.
The filing argues plaintiffs cannot use BHE’s oversight of HomeServices to establish liability while simultaneously claiming the settlement release—which plaintiffs themselves described as a nationwide release—does not extend to BHE.
Back in 2024, plaintiffs in the case—the same lawyers who filed Burnett—added the billion-dollar Warren Buffett conglomerate, arguing it was liable for the alleged price fixing carried out by HomeServices. Bough allowed this, denying previous attempts to remove BHE, transfer the case or enforce arbitration provisions.
Rocket’s title subsidiary hit with $175 million trade secrets verdict
A San Antonio jury, on March 6, ordered Armrock Inc.—Rocket Companies’ title subsidiary, now known as Rocket Close—to pay $175 million to data platform HouseCanary after finding that Amrock misappropriated HouseCanary‘s proprietary home valuation analytics and defrauded the company through false promises.
Rocket has disputed the allegations, calling HouseCanary’s claimed intellectual property “vaporware” and asserting the product did not exist, and the company is expected to appeal.
HouseCanary, which describes itself as a “valuation-focused real estate brokerage,” provides housing data to lenders, investors and other stakeholders. The company recently launched a “controlled experiment” with Google to put home listings directly in search results.
