A day after the settlement received final approval from Judge Stephen Baugh, an entity known as Spring Way Center and several home sellers appealed the deal.
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The National Association of Realtors’ landmark Antitrust Commission settlement received final approval just last week, but the deal is already facing an appeal.
Spring Way Center and others appealed to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. The group filed its notice of appeal Wednesday, a day after U.S. District Judge Stephen Baugh put a final rubber stamp on the settlement in the Sitzer case. Barnett and other antitrust lawsuits brought by home sellers.
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News of the appeal was first reported by Housing Wire.
Spring Way Center, a limited liability company previously named as a plaintiff in a separate home seller lawsuit, first filed its objections in Sitzer | Barnett settlement in October. At the time, the company argued that the agreement was too broad, provided too little financial compensation for consumers, and that changes in industry business practices were “illusory.”
Last Wednesday — the same day the Sitzer | Barnett settlement received final approval — a document purporting to say the Spring Way Center adopted the arguments of Tanya Monestier, a University at Buffalo law professor who also opposed the settlement. was submitted to the court. Ms. Monestier raised a number of concerns, but essentially her argument is that consumers are far from getting full value from the settlement, either financially or through the changes in business practices it requires; It boils down to the idea that life could get worse.
Monestier ultimately described the settlement as “the worst possible world.”
In Wednesday’s filing, Spring Way Center also said it would adopt the objections of Messrs. Cuney and Seeley, who represented the home seller plaintiffs in the South Carolina case known as Barton. Mr. Nee and Mr. Seeley opposed the October settlement.
A day after the settlement was given final approval last week, Monestier predicted he would face an appeal. Many other industry participants similarly expected an appeal to follow after final approval of the settlement. In other words, this legal development was not necessarily unexpected.
Join Spring Way Center in suing Sitzer’s final approval | Barnett’s settlement follows several private home sellers and plaintiffs in other lawsuits.
Although the appeal is still in its early stages, it highlights the fact that the final approval of NAR’s settlement does not resolve the issue in the Antitrust Commission case. Instead, the legal dispute is likely to drag on for some time, as well as attention from the U.S. Department of Justice. This also applies to other settlements, with home sellers previously appealing deals involving Keller Williams, Anywhere, and RE/MAX.
Read Spring Way Center’s Notice of Appeal here (if you don’t see the document, please refresh the page).
Email Jim Dalrymple II
