Jury Awards Large Commission In Commercial Property Dispute

One of the largest jury verdicts awarding a brokerage commission in Arizona history was recently awarded from a commercial property dispute

. A Scottsdale real estate agent was awarded a commission of $420,000 against a brokerage firm who had listed a large office building in north Scottsdale in this.

The facts are as follows:

A brokerage firm named Cavan Commercial LLC ("Cavan Commercial") had a 6% listing agreement on a large office building in north Scottsdale. Cavan Commercial and a real estate agent named Chris Wyatt entered into a 3% co-brokerage agreement if Chris Wyatt's client Buyer A purchased the office building. Four days later Buyer A signed a purchase contract to purchase the office building for $14,000,000. The $100,000 earnest money was paid 1/3 ($33,000) each by Buyer A and his two investor partners who Chris Wyatt had introduced to the designated broker of Cavan Commercial at a meeting three months earlier in Cavan Commercial's offices.

A few days after the Purchase Contract had been signed by Buyer A, Buyer A and his two investor partners formed a limited liability company ("LLC"), and assigned the purchase contract from Buyer A to this LLC. Buyer A and his two partners subsequently got in a dispute, and Buyer A agreed to transfer his membership interest in the LLC to his two investor partners.

For Section 1031 tax purposes, at the time of closing the LLC assigned the purchase contract to the two investor partners as individuals. The transaction closed. Immediately after the transaction closed, the two investor partners transferred the title to the office building back to the LLC.

Although the escrow commission instructions at closing prepared by the title company provided for a 3% commission to Chris Wyatt, this provision for Chris Wyatt's 3% commission was crossed out by Cavan Commercial, who revised the escrow commission instructions to provide for the entire 6% commission ($840,000) to be paid to Cavan Commercial.

When Chris Wyatt complained and requested his 3% commission, the designated broker for Cavan Commercial said Sue me. Chris Wyatt did. Almost four years to the day after Chris Wyatt had introduced Buyer A and his two investor partners to the designated broker of Cavan Commercial, the commission dispute was tried before a jury in Maricopa County Superior Court. After a three-day jury trial, the jury deliberated less than one hour and awarded the entire 3% commission of $420,000 to Chris Wyatt. (Wyatt v. Cavan Commercial, LLC; CV2006-01270; Jury verdict November 14, 2008.)

Chris Wyatt was represented at the jury trial by John Skiba, with assistance from Chris Combs and litigation paralegal Lisa O'Brien. Don Martin, a former president of the Arizona Association of REALTORS, testified as an expert witness on behalf of Chris Wyatt. Cavan Commercial (renamed Logan Commercial LLC prior to the setting of the trial date) was represented by two lawyers from a national law firm.

Note: During the questioning of prospective jurors before the trial began, one of the prospective jurors was a real estate agent, and in response to questioning from Cavan Commercial's lawyer, the real estate agent said that she did not know if she could be fair because she was tired of seeing real estate agents being "cheated" out of their commissions. Although she was honest, she was immediately excused as a juror!

by: Christopher Combs

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