Editor’s note: The COURT REPORT is RISMedia’s weekly look at current and upcoming lawsuits, investigations and other legal developments around real estate.
Realtor.com’s parent company drops lawsuit against CoStar
Move, Realtor.com’s parent company, dropped its lawsuit against CoStar, according to an April 8 court filing.
The lawsuit started July 2024 after a former writer and editor for Realtor.com, James Kaminsky, was accused of sharing the company’s data with CoStar’s Homes.com when he switched companies following his layoff in January 2024.
According to a Realtor.com spokesperson, Kaminsky is no longer employed by CoStar.
“Realtor.com has chosen to settle with our ex-employee, who is no longer an employee of CoStar. Given that he is no longer employed by CoStar and we have a settlement in place, we have chosen to dismiss our trade secrets lawsuit against CoStar because the risk of additional misuse has been mitigated,” the spokesperson wrote.
In an exclusive interview with RISMedia, CoStar CEO Andy Florance called the lawsuit “frivolous” and said that the only reason the suit was dropped was because CoStar threatened to sue Realtor.com for sanctions, not because it settled with Kaminsky.
“We could sue for sanctions because it was a frivolous lawsuit, but we’re just moving on,” Florance continued. “At the end of the day, the lawsuit was designed to manipulate the press. They made unsubstantiated allegations that they could not prove in court. They had all year to prove it. They didn’t prove anything. There was nothing. So everything they alleged was unsubstantiated, and they knew that when they began it. So they had no choice but to dismiss it, because if they didn’t, they would face sanctions.”
Commission case judge refuses to step down, despite Howard Hanna’s claims
Judge Stephen R. Bough—who oversaw the Burnett case—declined to step down from his role in the Gibson case, following a recusal bid by Howard Hanna.
Related to Bough accepting contributions from plaintiffs to his wife’s political campaigns, this same issue came up in Burnett, but in the Gibson case, the court did not bring it to the parties’ attention, argued Hanna Holdings in a court filing.
“Rather than offer the parties in Gibson the same opportunity, the Court appointed the very attorney who admittedly created the basis for disqualification in Burnett to be class counsel in Gibson—just five days after recognizing the potential for apparent impropriety caused by the donation in Burnett and without ever informing the parties in Gibson of the issue,” read the court document.
Bough’s reasoning for staying on the Gibson case is that although the plaintiffs’ attorneys donated money to his wife’s campaign, lawyers for the defendants have donated far more, writing that “context matters” when determining whether a recusal is appropriate.
In response to an emailed inquiry, a spokesperson from Howard Hanna said the company was “currently evaluating the Court’s decision and any next steps.”
eXp discovery reveals alleged forged signatures, last-minute document dumps and deleted workplace chats
Still in the discovery stage, the Acevedo v. eXp sexual assault case has attorneys on both sides butting heads over a series of alleged workplace profiles and messages disappearing, discovery abuse and an alleged forged signature.
Plaintiff’s counsel revealed they have two witnesses willing to testify that eXp’s founder, Glenn Sanford, would routinely delete accounts and group chats.
In order not to “waste anymore time,” Judge Alicia Rosenberg said that since there is still a lot of ground to cover, they need to proceed with depositions and any objections could be addressed with a motion to compel.
The trial date is currently set for Nov. 17, 2025.