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Another batch of home seller commission lawsuit settlement agreements have received preliminary approval. On Friday, Judge Stephen R. Bough granted preliminary approval to five settlements reached in the Gibson lawsuit. The settling defendants included Hanna Holdings, William Raveis Real Estate, EXIT Realty Corp., Windermere Real Estate Services and William L. Lyon & Associates.
According to the order, the court finds the settlements “fair, reasonable, and adequate,” and that they were “negotiated at arm’s-length by experienced counsel acting in good faith, including in several cases, mediation with a nationally recognized and highly experienced mediator.” The order also notes that there has been “adequate opportunity for discovery for experienced counsel to evaluate the claims and risks at this stage of the litigation,” and that the “class representatives have adequately represented the classes.”
The ruling also defines the settlement classes for each settling party. For consumers who worked with an agent brokered by Hanna Holdings or William Ravevis to sell an MLS-listed home, depending on the state they sold the property in, their date ranges can start as early as October 31, 2017, or as late as October 31, 2019. All eligible date ranges end at the date of the class notice.
For those impacted by the EXIT Realty, Windermere and Lyon settlements, the class includes anyone who sold a home listed on an MLS anywhere in the U.S. where a commission was paid to any brokerage in connection with the sale from Oct. 31, 2019, to the date of the class notice.
Named plaintiffs Don Gibson, Lauren Criss, John Meiners, and Daniel Umpa were appointed as the Settlement class representatives.
As with other settlements approved in Gibson, JND Legal Administration was named settlement administrator and was tasked with implementing the class notice plan.
A final approval hearing for the settlement has not yet been set.
The five defendants all announced their settlement agreements earlier this year, with William Raveis settling nearly seven months ago.
While the Gibson plaintiffs are all clearly ok with these settlement agreements, they don’t feel the same way about those reached in the Hooper commission lawsuit, which includes settlements from eXp World Holdings and Weichert Realtors. The Gibson plaintiffs filed an objection to the final approval of these settlements last month.
