Weichert reaches a deal in Georgia commissions case
The franchise went the same route as eXp, agreeing to settle with plaintiffs in the Hooper case even though it was originally named in Gibson.
One of the largest real estate companies that had not yet settled in the class action commissions lawsuits has reached an agreement in a Georgia case.
New Jersey-based Weichert Realtors, the 11th-largest brokerage company and eighth-largest franchise brand in the U.S., filed documents in U.S. District Court in Missouri on Nov. 6 indicating that it had agreed to settle with the plaintiffs in the Hooper case. Weichert was a defendant in the original Gibson case, filed on the heels of the Sitzer/Burnett verdict, but had not been named in Hooper.
The filing included a request for a stay in the Gibson/Umpa case, where a judge recently approved nine brokerage settlements. On Nov. 8, documents announcing the settlement and requesting a stay were filed in U.S. District Court in Northern Georgia. That request for a stay was approved by Judge Mark Cohen.
The Nov. 6 filing did not disclose the amount of damages Weichert agreed to pay, but it indicated that more details would be made available soon when the preliminary settlement is filed by the Hooper plaintiffs in Georgia.
Weichert is also a defendant in the Batton 2 case brought by homebuyers and has been actively seeking dismissal of that case.
Similar strategy as eXp: Settling with plaintiffs other than those in the Gibson or Sitzer/Burnett cases is a tactic recently taken by eXp. The cloud-based brokerage settled for $34 million with the Hooper plaintiffs after failing to reach an agreement with the Gibson plaintiffs, who subsequently challenged the settlement agreement, calling it a "sweetheart deal" that was well below settlements for brokerages of similar sizes.
The combined Weichert Realtors and Weichert Affiliates companies have more than 15,000 agents and do around $45 billion in annual sales, according to the Real Estate Almanac.
Power struggle: This settlement strategy has resulted in a bit of a tug-of-war between the Gibson and Hooper plaintiffs. According to the Nov. 6 court documents, after eXp announced it had settled, the Gibson plaintiffs filed a motion to intervene in the Hooper case and have it transferred to Missouri. Defendants in the Hooper case have a Dec. 5 deadline to respond.
The judge's ruling on that motion "could affect the process and timing of preliminary and final approval of Weichert's settlement with the Hooper plaintiffs," the filing stated.