An Illinois judge rejected a last-minute effort by plaintiffs in the Batton 1 lawsuit to halt the final court approval of settlements by three major brokerages in the Sitzer/Burnett case.
The Batton 1 plaintiff sought to block the settlement agreements by Anywhere, Keller Williams and RE/MAX. District Court Judge Andrea R. Wood said the request was “neither necessary nor appropriate,” adding the plaintiffs were trying to “prevent the fairness hearing duly set by the Burnett court from going forward according to that court’s orders.”
Wood added the Batton 1 plaintiffs can make their case during the final approval hearing of the Sitzer/Burnett case, which is being conducted in a Missouri court.
The Batton 1 case was initially filed in Illinois by homebuyer Judah Leeder in 2021, but was dismissed the following year and later refiled with another buyer, Mya Batton, taking over as the lead defendant and giving the case her surname. In addition to the three aforementioned brokerages, the other defendants were the National Associations of Realtors and HomeServices of America – the court dismissed the latter from the case in February.
A second similar case, dubbed Batton 2, was filed two days after the Sitzer/Burnett verdict was announced – Mya Batton was the lead plaintiff on this case, which focused on a different set of brokerages: Compass, Douglas Elliman, eXp, Howard Hanna Real Estate, Redfin, United Real Estate and Weichert Realtors.
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