An Analysis of the Court's Dismissal of HomeServices from Batton v. NAR
This is not necessarily a win....
I was a bit surprised to see a tweet from RealEstateNews.com that HomeServices of America (and its many affiliates, like HSF Affiliates, BHH Affiliates, Long & Foster Companies, etc.) have been dismissed from the commissions case. I thought they would settle, as did Anywhere, RE/MAX and Keller Williams, but a straight up dismissal is a big win. So I went and read the story, which can be found here.
Steph Reid-Simons and Dave Gallagher, both excellent reporters for RealEstateNews.com, apparently spent an enormous amount of time discussing FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). I’m thankful for their reporting since CivPro is probably the hardest class as a 1L and most people’s least favorite class in law school.
However, I don’t think the opinion says what the headline — indeed, the story itself — suggests. While it is unalloyed good news for HomeServices & Co., I think the opinion itself is actually fairly bad news for a whole lot of people in the industry.
Advanced warning: this is going to get boring for most people, since I have to dig into a bit of legal geekery. But to save most of you, I’ll put the big important takeaways at the top, so you can skip all the details.
As always, I’m not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice. This is analysis for education and information. Please consult your own attorney and so on.
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