Gibson defendants want to move the suit out of Missouri
In late March, Howard Hanna made a similar request, asking the court to reconsider its earlier motion to transfer the case to the Western District of Pennsylvania where it is based.
An affidavit by BHE’s senior vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary Natalie Hocken included in the filing, stated the BHE does not have any offices or employees, nor does it do any business or file tax returns in Missouri. The affidavit also notes that BHE is not a real estate company, that it has never been a real estate broker or franchisor anywhere, let alone in Missouri, and that it has never belonged to, managed or overseen any local, state or national Realtor association of MLS.
“BHE has never encouraged or mandated its subsidiaries, or their subsidiaries, specifically to join the National Association of Realtors (NAR),” Hocken said in the affidavit. “It has never adopted and has never required or encouraged its subsidiaries to adopt NAR rules and has never caused its subsidiaries to require or encourage their subsidiaries or franchisees to adopt NAR rules. BHE has never attempted to influence anyone’s decisions to affiliate with or join NAR or to adopt, implement, or enforce any NAR rules.”
The filing also noted that BHE has never employed Realtors and that HomeServices is its only direct subsidiary with ties to the real estate industry, as it “invests in companies that provide real estate brokerage services.” However, the filing notes that HomeServices does not have real estate franchises itself, but that it “indirectly” owns real estate franchisor BHH Affiliates. Hocken states in the affidavit that BHE does “not supervise or intervene in the affairs of any of HomeServices’ subsidiaries or of BHH’s franchisees. BHE does not exert influence over any major decisions of any of HomeServices’ subsidiaries or of BHH’s franchisees.”
Despite being a direct subsidiary, Hocken claims that HomeServices is a separate corporate entity from BHE with its own board of directors, and that the parent company does not take part in any of HomeServices daily operations. While Hocken makes these assertions, she also acknowledges that BHE executives, Scott Thon and Charles Chang, are on HomeServices’ three-person board.
In addition to wanting the case moved to their respective home states, these two defendants also called for Judge Stephen R. Bough, who is overseeing the suit, to recuse himself from the case. In their motion for recusal filed in mid-March, the defendants argue that Judge Bough should be recused from the Gibson suit because Matthew Dameron, former lead class counsel, donated to the political campaign of Judge Bough’s wife, Andrea Bough. Judge Bough offered to recuse himself in the Sitzer/Burnett suit due to this, but he did not make the same offer in the Gibson suit.
