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William Raveis has added its name to the ever growing list of brokerage defendants who have settled the commission lawsuits.Â
Last Wednesday, the east coast-based firm filed a joint motion with the Gibson plaintiffs to stay proceedings and deadlings related to William Raveis in the Gibson suit due to a successfully negotiated settlement.
The settlement terms and financial amount have not yet been disclosed.Â
The notice of this settlement comes after Judge Stephen Bough, who is overseeing the suit, denied William Raveis’ claim in a response filing that the class members are required to arbitrate their claims based on the individual contracts they signed with William Raveis brokers, and that the plaintiffs did not sustain any damage caused by the defendants.
In October 2024, Judge Bough granted final approval to the settlements reached by nine other brokerage defendants in the suit. However, he recently denied defendant Crye-Leike Real Estate Services’ claim that it should be covered by the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) settlement. The defendant was claiming that it was actually six independent companies and not one firm. According to data from RealTrends Verified, Crye-Leike closed about $7 billion in sales volume in 2022, well above the $2 billion threshold noted in the settlement terms.
In addition to these settlement developments, Judge Bough himself recently came under fire from defendant Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, which alleges that Bough has a conflict of interest and should recuse himself from the case. Howard Hanna has not settled the commission lawsuits.
Matthew Dameron, an attorney for the plaintiffs, made a donation to then-Kansas City, Missouri City Council candidate Andrea Bough, who is Judge Stephen Bough’s wife. Howard Hanna said that Bough offered to recuse himself in Sitzer/Burnett for this reason and should do so for the Gibson suit given Dameron is a plaintiffs’ attorney in both cases.
He did recuse himself in a suit against a gun manufacturer over the donations, which Howard Hanna has seized on as evidence Bough knows he has the appearance of a conflict of interest.
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