Thanks daytrip for sending this in – a surprising verdict, and if it wasn’t such a high ticket price, it may not have gone this way:
MSNBC host and former ad exec Donny Deutsch scammed a real estate broker out of a $1.2 million commission in the sale of Deutsch’s $30 million Hamptons home, a Manhattan judge seethes in new court papers.
Justice Charles Ramos says Deutsch’s lawyer was acting on his client’s behalf when Sotheby’s broker Edward Petrie was schemed out of his 4 percent commission, The Post’s Julia Marsh reports.
Petrie had brought a potential buyer, LA hedge funder Howard Marks, by Deutsch’s Tyson Lane home in 2010.
After Deutsch realized he knew Marks, he went behind Petrie’s back and brokered the sale privately to avoid the fee, Petrie claimed.
“This court considers that and refusal to acknowledge [Petrie] as the broker to be marks of dishonesty and greed,” Ramos writes in the Oct. 23 decision awarding Petrie’s employer, Sotheby’s, $1.2 million.
“Both characteristics are particularly unbecoming when exhibited by those blessed with great wealth,” the judge scolds.
A representative for Deutsch says, “Mr. Deutsch is shocked and outraged by this ruling, which is wrong based on law and fact. The ruling was based on the Sotheby’s broker’s contention that Mr. Deutsch agreed to a 4% commission arrangement. This is an outright and absolute lie. There was no such agreement, neither verbal nor written, and internal Sotheby’s email communications confirm this. Mr. Deutsch will vigorously defend his position in court and is very confident this decision will be reversed on appeal.”
I won a similar verdict albeit through mediation recently. Bright a buyer to a $6mm property they made and offer which was accepted. The buyer backed out. Seller terminated our listing. 2 months later the same buyer was in contract direct with the seller. This was in California. Procuring law really came down to “he who shakes the tree gets the fruit”
So how much work did this realtor do to earn $1.2M? That’s quite a payday.
So how much work did this realtor do to earn $1.2M? That’s quite a payday.
He probably didn’t spend months or years working on this specific case – at least not until the seller screwed him – but it was the professional expertise and a network of big spenders that he perfected over his career that got him to this point.
And those Teslas don’t come cheap either! 😆
Was it a signed or implied in fact contract?
If the broker introduced the buyer to the seller, that’s it. Ain’t nothin’ else to discuss, Donny Deutsch must pay the broker full commission, and if the judge were fully righteous, he would also levy a hefty bench fine against Mr. Deutsch not only for thinking he could get away with it, but also for allowing himself to be photographed wearing that t-shirt while being 59.
“In this action for damages arising from a claimed breach of contract relating to the sale of two of defendants’ properties in East Hampton, New York, we find no basis to disturb the trial court’s findings, based largely on credibility determinations, that there was an express agreement or at least an implied agreement to pay plaintiff a commission of 4% (see Joseph P. Day Realty Corp. v Chera, 308 AD2d 148, 149, 153 [1st Dept 2003]).”
He must have been a very bad witness. And the shirt sealed the deal.