Tuccori counsel reject Batton fee request; no rehearing in Sitzer 

In the courts this week, attorneys in two buyer-initiated commissions cases still cannot agree on how to divide up fees, and objectors to the Sitzer/Burnett and Gibson settlements lost their bid for a rehearing. 

Plus, two shareholder suits against Zillow executives have been consolidated into one case.

Tuccori counsel push back on Batton fee request

Attorneys in Tuccori, a case brought by homebuyers alleging inflated commissions, filed a brief Sept. 24 opposing a nearly $40 million fee request from counsel in the related Batton case. Lawyers representing the two plaintiff classes each submitted requests in August for approximately one-third of the settlement fund as payment for their services. 

At stake is a share of the more than $120 million paid into the fund (roughly $106 million in settlements received preliminary approval in May). The bulk of the fund consists of settlements with the National Association of Realtors and several brokerage defendants who were named in Batton but joined the Tuccori deal through an opt-in clause. 

Those opt-in settlements are at the heart of the dispute. The Batton attorneys argued that 95% of the settlement money paid into the global fund came from defendants litigated by the Batton counsel, who "provided over five years of zealous litigation services bearing substantial risk of nonpayment for millions of dollars in time and expenses," justifying their fee. 

In response, Tuccori's class counsel argued that the Batton attorneys are not entitled to a share of a fund it did not help build. Thursday's filing also claims that some of the work behind the request has already been paid once in another case, and that the underlying billing records are too incomplete to support the amount sought. 

Tuccori class counsel is asking the court to deny the request as premature or reject it outright on the merits. The Tuccori attorneys themselves have requested $37.9 million in fees. 

Rehearing bids denied in Sitzer/Burnett, Gibson settlements

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 24 denied rehearing requests from two objectors to the landmark Sitzer/Burnett commissions settlement.

Monty March and Robert Friedman, who are also appellants in the Gibson case, had requested a rehearing after the appeals court affirmed the lower court's ruling. Both objectors asked the same three-judge panel that heard oral arguments in January to reconsider its ruling upholding the Sitzer/Burnett settlements. 

The denial follows a string of related setbacks for objectors this year: the Sitzer/Burnett settlements were upheld in rulings on Aug. 19 and Sept. 15, and the Gibson settlements were separately upheld on Sept. 1. 

Friedman filed a second rehearing petition on Sept. 15 specific to the Gibson case. That request remains pending.

Shareholder suits against Zillow consolidated

Two shareholder derivative suits filed a day apart in July — Fogel v. Frink, et al on July 13 and Ross v. Wacksman, et al on July 14 — were consolidated into a single case Sept. 22 by a federal judge in Seattle. 

Both suits accuse current and former Zillow executives and directors of breaching their fiduciary duties to the company in connection with a 2025 rentals partnership between Zillow and Redfin. The Federal Trade Commission and five state attorneys general sued over that agreement nearly a year ago, although the parties were able to reach a resolution in the case last month. 

The complaints allege that Zillow's stock price and market value fell sharply after the company disclosed the scale of its regulatory exposure, and that several named executives sold company stock while those disclosures remained incomplete — though the two complaints differ on the specific dollar figures involved. The consolidated case has been stayed pending developments in a related securities class action against Zillow. 

Zillow has not yet filed a response to the claims.