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Wilkins v. Pike/Wayne Assoc. of REALTORS®: Court Enforces Agreement between Association and Member

October 1, 2011
Legal

A court has considered whether a broker violated a settlement agreement when he placed nonmember listings into an association’s multiple listing service.

In 2007, Thomas Wilkins (“Broker”) filed a lawsuit against the Pike/Wayne Association of REALTORS® (“Association”) after the Association removed some of the Broker’s listings from the Association’s multiple listing service (“MLS”) that were from non-MLS participants. The parties entered into a settlement agreement (“Stipulation”) that the parties filed with the court. In the Stipulation, the Broker agreed to: abide by the MLS’s rules; provide the Association with verification of listing agreements; and would only place listings into the MLS secured on behalf of the Broker.

Following the Stipulation, the Association believed that the Broker was once again submitting listings of nonmembers. When he submitted these listings, he listed himself as the co-listing agent and refused to provide copies of the listing agreements to the Association. When the Association began deleting these listings from the MLS, the Broker filed a motion seeking to enforce the terms of the Stipulation. In response, the Association filed a motion seeking judgment in its favor as well as enforcement of the Stipulation.

The Court of Common Pleas of Pike County, Pennsylvania ruled in the Association’s favor and ordered the enforcement of the settlement agreement. The court rejected the Broker’s argument that because he owned the firms from which he submitted listings, he therefore owned the listings and could submit the listings even though the listing broker had not paid subscriber fees. The Broker was not the listing agent for those listings, and only listings from subscribers could be submitted to the MLS.

Instead, the court found that the Stipulation required the Broker to abide by the MLS rules. Since the MLS rules barred the submission of listings from nonmembers, the Broker had violated the MLS rules and so violated the Stipulation. Therefore, the court ordered the enforcement of the Stipulation against the Broker.

Wilkins v. Pike/Wayne Assoc. of REALTORS®, No. 1573-CIVIL-2007 (Pa. Ct. of C.P., Pike Cty. July 5, 2011) 974 A.2d 1202 (Table) Pa.Super. 2009.


Editor’s Note: NAR Legal Affairs would like to thank Janet Gallagher, the Association Executive for the Pike/Wayne Association of REALTORS®, for alerting NAR to this decision.

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