Brokerages settle in Gibson/Umpa consolidated litigation

In the Gibson case, on October 31, 2024, Judge Stephen Bough granted final approval for nine settlements involving Compass, Douglas Elliman, The Real Brokerage, @properties, Redfin, Realty ONE Group, Engel & Völkers, HomeSmart and United Real Estate. The companies will pay $110 million collectively.  He set the trial for the remaining defendants including NAR on November 8, 2027.

Gibson was initially filed in October 2023 only hours after the Burnett verdict by the same attorneys including Michael Ketchmark, who successfully represented the plaintiffs in that lawsuit. Umpa was filed by the Moehrl plaintiffs and targeted similar defendants. The new case scheduled for trial in 2027 is a consolidated version of Umpa and Gibson.

In April 2024, plaintiffs in the case added nearly two dozen defendants who were not part of the NAR settlement.

A six-judge multidistrict litigation panel ruled in April 2024 that nine other copycat lawsuits could not consolidate.  “The panel did not rule out eventual consolidation, noting that depending on the extent of overlap, future consolidation cannot be ruled out.

We have handpicked the key allegations in the 48-page Gibson complaint here.

The complete legal filing of the Complaint, all 48 pages, can be found here.