Court docket Refuses Gary Keller’s Request To Merge John Davis Lawsuits
A fraud lawsuit filed by Davis towards Keller, Keller Williams and Josh Group will proceed individually from a sexual misconduct go well with filed by Inga Dow towards Davis, Keller, and KW.
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A sexual misconduct lawsuit and a fraud lawsuit filed towards actual property franchisor Keller Williams and its co-founder Gary Keller will proceed as two separate circumstances after a federal court docket refused Keller’s request to merge them final week.
John Davis
Within the fall, former Keller Williams CEO John Davis filed a lawsuit towards Keller and Keller Williams in what Davis mentioned is an effort to revive his popularity after sexual misconduct allegations towards him surfaced earlier in 2022 and to recuperate $300 million in damages.
The Oct. 27 complaint additionally names former KW President Josh Group and Inga Dow, the CEO of a number of Keller Williams workplaces who lodged the allegations towards Davis, as defendants.
Within the go well with, Davis alleges he resigned from KW due to a disagreement with Keller over a enterprise technique that he believed would herald much less revenue to Keller Williams workplaces, and that Keller and Group responded by smearing him and withholding Dow’s accusations from him when he was negotiating the sale of his KW market heart areas after his resignation, leading to tens of thousands and thousands in monetary losses.
Inga Dow
In a March amended complaint towards KW, Keller and Davis, Dow alleged she had endured years of sexual misconduct, harassment and abuse at Davis’ palms and that Austin-based Keller Williams Realty Inc. (KWRI) did nothing to deal with the alleged conduct and continued to retaliate towards her for reporting it.
Earlier this month, Dow and Keller Williams — with Group and Keller becoming a member of the latter — filed separate motions to consolidate Davis’s go well with and Dow’s go well with, arguing that the 2 circumstances contain “frequent questions of regulation and truth” and merging them “will preserve assets of the events and the court docket.”
However on Jan. 25, Decide Reed O’Connor of Fort Price’s district court docket denied the motions, noting that the Dow case is quickly suspended pending the outcomes of arbitration relating to the claims towards KW and Keller, however not the claims towards Davis. Davis has had a movement to dismiss the Dow go well with pending since Jan, 6, 2022, O’Connor famous, and that has prevented him from submitting a solution to the grievance or a counterclaim in that case.
“Plaintiff John Davis has not been afforded aid within the Dow Case, nor will he be afforded aid any time quickly,” O’Connor wrote in his order.
“[B]ased on the newest arbitration standing replace within the Dow Case from December 1, 2022, it appears that evidently a remaining arbitration listening to has not but been set, thus making any decision months— if not years — away,” O’Connor added.
O’Connor additionally mentioned the court docket was ready to resolve “a number of key factual points” in each circumstances “in an expedited method” in an effort to “preserve judicial assets by eliminating the necessity for duplicative proceedings which have already stretched on for years.”
He ordered Keller, Group, and Keller Williams to file their solutions or in any other case reply to Davis’s go well with by Feb. 8.
In a telephone interview, John Davis spokesperson Paul Omodt instructed Inman the decide’s order is “a canary within the coal mine second.”
“As this case has dragged on, extra folks have contacted us with comparable experiences” relating to points shopping for and promoting their Keller Williams franchises or their areas and the offers not being performed at arms’ size, in line with Omodt.
“Individuals discover that [an independent appraisal of] worth just isn’t revered and other people increased up in Keller Williams … are attempting to place their thumb on the size [to] inflate the value or deflate the value to get a greater deal for themselves,” Omodt mentioned. “They [Keller Williams] clearly aren’t residing their values.”
Omodt additionally alleged that Dow had been utilizing “apparent delay ways” within the litigation, together with the dearth of progress on arbitration, and that the decide had had sufficient. In December, the court found that Dow had been “deliberately evading service” of Davis’s go well with, which means she had resisted makes an attempt to obtain a proper discover of the go well with.
“I feel [the judge is] saying people who find themselves harmless don’t evade service like Inga Dow has performed,” Omodt mentioned.
“I feel he’s seen sufficient and desires to maneuver issues ahead. John sits in limbo whereas they do nothing.”
Omodt expects that after all sides responds to interrogatories within the case — written questions events need to reply underneath oath — “the decide may have a fuller image and set a trial date.”
“We look ahead to that,” Omodt mentioned. “We’re extra assured in our case on daily basis and I feel the decide sees that too.”
Keller Williams and Group declined to remark for this story. Dow didn’t reply to a request for remark.
E mail Andrea V. Brambila.
