In a move that’s unsurprising, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Bough has granted final approval to 15 more иск комиссии settlement agreements.
Bough granted final approval to settlements negotiated in the Gibson and Keel suits during a joint hearing on Tuesday afternoon.
The settling defendants in the two suits, both of which are being overseen by Bough, filed a joint motion for final approval last week.
Из 15 ответчиков, заключивших мировое соглашение, шесть были названы в иске Гибсона, а девять — в иске Киля.
The Gibson settling defendants include Keyes Co./Иллюстрированные свойства ($2.4 million), СледующийГлавная ($600,000), Джон Л. Скотт ($1 миллион), Локация ($925,000), Недвижимость Один ($1.5 million), and Бэрд и Уорнер ($2.2 million).
The Киль урегулировал спор между ответчиками включать Сторона (1ТП4Т5,5 млн.), Недвижимость Seven Gables ($1 миллион), Вашингтон Файн Пропертиз ($1,3 миллиона), JPAR ($700,000), Фирменные свойства Хантингтона ($850,000), Центральная информационная служба Нью-Йорка ($125,000), Brooklyn New York MLS ($95,000), First Team Real Estate — округ Ориндж ($1 миллион), и Сибси Клайн ($895,000).
These settlement amounts bring the overall settlement total for the commission lawsuits to roughly $1.04 billion. More than 2,5 миллиона исков had been filed in relation to the settlements as of May 9, 2025.
This is the second round of Gibson settlements that Bough has granted final approval for. He approved nine others during a hearing in late October 2024.
Bough also oversaw the Sitzer/Burnett suit and granted final approval to the settlements negotiated by РЕ/МАКС, Келлер Уильямс, Везде, ДомУслуги Америки и Национальная ассоциация риэлторов.
Path less traveled
While many commission lawsuit defendants have chosen to settle, Говард Ханна Услуги по недвижимости has taken a different approach. The family-owned real estate firm has continued to pursue litigation in these lawsuits and has had some success.
Most recently, Howard Hanna saw some of the claims against it in the Davis commission lawsuit dismissed. On Monday, Judge Wendy Beetlestone of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed claims made by homebuyer plaintiffs that the firm colluded with other brokerages to fix agent commissions.
Beetlestone used the rule of reason analysis to determine this judgment. This differs from the per se approach used by the court in the Sitzer/Burnett suit. The per se analysis approach prevented NAR and the corporate brokerage defendants from introducing evidence or arguments that the Participation Rule had a positive impact on competition in the industry.
According to Beetlestone, “at best” the allegations made by the plaintiffs showed that Howard Hanna knew other brokerage firms were also contemplating the now-defunct Participation Rule and were open to collaborating.
“(B)inding precedent holds that joining a trade organization, helping develop its rules, and enforcing those rules (even in collaboration with other members of the organization) do not plausibly establish the existence of a prior and separate horizontal agreement among competitors,” she wrote in her ruling.
Despite Beetlestone’s ruling, some claims against Howard Hanna in this suit are being allowed to continue.
This is the second victory that Howard Hanna has achieved in the Davis suit, as the firm successfully negotiated for the case to be moved from Illinois to Pennsylvania.
Additionally, Howard Hanna was dismissed из Moratis home seller commission lawsuit in October 2024.
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