After being dragged back into a homebuyer commission lawsuit, Hanna Holdings, the parent company of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, is again looking for an exit. On Monday, the firm filed a motion to dismiss Davis commission lawsuit or relocate it to the Western District of Pennsylvania.
The suit, which is named after its plaintiff Scott Davis, was filed in late May in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of Davis by attorneys at Korein Tillery LLC, the same law firm representing the plaintiffs in the Batton suits. Howard Hanna was voluntarily dismissed from the Batton 2 homebuyer suit in March.
In its most recent motion, Howard Hanna claims that the suit should be dismissed for a variety of reasons, including that the plaintiff “failed to honor his contractual requirement to mediate before filing this lawsuit,” and that the plaintiff “lacks standing to assert his state and federal claims.”
The defendant claims that the plaintiff lacks standing on nearly all of the state-law claims made in the suit because “plaintiffs may only sue under the laws of states in which they reside or were injured. Plaintiff sues under the laws of 35 states but resides and purchased his home in just one: North Carolina. All other state law claims must therefore be dismissed.”
Additionally, Howard Hanna claims that Davis also lacks antitrust standing to sue under the federal Sherman Antitrust Act because “as the Batton court recognized, home buyers are not direct purchasers of the allegedly overpriced buyer-broker services.”
“Accordingly, not only are home buyers barred from seeking damages under the Sherman Act and many state laws pursuant to Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, 431 U.S. 720 (1977), they also cannot obtain an injunction under the Sherman Act or damages under North Carolina’s antitrust statute (or its consumer protection statute) because home seller plaintiffs are more efficient enforcers of the antitrust laws,” the motion states.
The real estate firm also notes that even if Davis had the standing to assert his state-law claims, all of them “fail because they do not specify how the facts alleged are actionable under any of the state laws Plaintiff invokes. And particular state law claims fail for myriad state-specific reasons.” The plaintiff has not “plausibly alleged either an agreement among Defendant and the purported coconspirators or a relevant antitrust market,” defense attorneys wrote.
Lastly, Howard Hanna argues that if the suit is not dismissed, it should be transferred from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to the Western District due to “the scant connection to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the fact that the relevant evidence, witnesses, and operative facts will overwhelmingly be found in the Western District.”
In addition to Hanna Holdings, the Davis suit lists Anywhere Real Estate, RE/MAX Holdings, Keller Williams Realty, HomeServices of America, Compass, eXp World Holdings, Redfin, Weichert Realtors, United Real Estate Group and Douglas Elliman as co-conspirators.
The suit is seeking class-action status for a nationwide class defined as persons who purchased residential real estate that was listed on a Realtor-affiliated MLS between Dec. 1, 1996, and the present.
The plaintiff is demanding a jury trial, as well as damages and an injunction that “permanently enjoin and restrain Defendant from establishing the same or similar rules, policies, or practices as those challenged in this action in the future.”
