The taste of victory was short-lived RE/MAX, Keller Williams again Anywhere. After successfully getting the Batton 1 real estate commission case settled in October because the defendants were granted final approval of their real estate commission, three national brokerages had no luck with their motions to dismiss.
In early October, Chicago-based U.S. District Court Judge LaShonda Hunt — who presided over the two Batton cases after Judge Andrea Wood recused herself in early September — took the defendants’ motions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction under advisement. But at Friday’s hearing, he dismissed the suggestions.
According to Hunt’s decision, “under long-standing precedent, due process allows for the use of personal power so long that ‘defendants have ‘so little connection’ to Illinois that holding the case ‘does not interfere with traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. ,’” and that personal jurisdiction “may be general, where the defendant ‘has continuous and systematic business contacts’ in the forum state or directly, ‘where (1) the defendant has willfully directed his activities in the forum or has knowingly obtained for himself the right to conduct business in that state, and ( 2) the alleged injury arises out of activities related to the defendant’s field.’”
Hunt noted that the three defendants filed initial motions to dismiss the case in April 2021, but ultimately dismissed it. HomeServices of America – who was dismissed from the case in February 2024 – filed a motion to quash personal jurisdiction. Additionally, the judge noted that it was not until after HomeServices was dissolved that other defendants chose this strategy.
“At no time did the Moving Defendants seek to amend their motion to dismiss to add defenses, join the HomeServices Defendants’ motion, or assert or maintain a defense, despite being informed that the HomeServices Defendants had asserted a defense by at least September 2022,” Hunt wrote.
Since the three defendants did not raise this argument in their original motions to dismiss, Hunt felt that the court need not “consider whether plaintiffs have met their burden to obtain jurisdiction over the Moving Defendant.”
The defendants filed their motions to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction in April 2024. The plaintiffs argued that the plaintiffs and the court lacked jurisdiction because the firms were not headquartered or incorporated in Illinois. Additionally, they noted that none of the plaintiffs had purchased homes in Illinois.
I National Association of Realtors (NAR) is the last defendant in the Batton 1 case, which was filed in January 2021.
In the Batton 2 lawsuit, filed in November 2023, plaintiffs moved to file an amended complaint. They are looking to add 25 new class representatives and remove four state law claims in the case. Your plaintiffs argue that the dismissal of the state law claims is “not void” and that the new plaintiffs “are asserting the same claims as those Defendants have already pleaded and which this Court has upheld.”
Additionally, they noted that the introduction of new plaintiffs “will not cause prejudice or undue delay because the Defendants have not yet issued discovery demands and the Court has not entered into a discovery process.”
Defendants in the Batton 2 suit include Compass, eXp World Holdings, Redfin, Weichert Realtors again United Real Estate. Howard Hanna again Douglas Elliman they were named as defendants when the case was opened but they were withdrawn.
The remaining Batton 2 defendants each have pending motions to dismiss that Hunt acted under advisement.
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