Agents Sue Partner Over $2.24M Commission From Mall Deal
One of the brokers of the $56 million sale of the indoor flea market concealed the transaction from his business partners as a way to keep the entire $2.24 million sale commission for himself, according to the complaint.
August 07, 2019 at 02:50 PM
4 minute read
Business partners of a South Florida broker for last year’s $56 million sale of Pompano Beach’s Festival Marketplace mall have accused him of swindling them out of payment for their work on the deal.
Christopher Bauso and Claudia Herrera claim that real estate agent Morris Jaime Godur hid from them that the property had been sold so he wouldn’t have to share the $2.24 million sale commission, according to Bauso and Herrera’s Broward Circuit Court complaint. Godur had promised to pay Bauso 20% of the sale commission because Bauso connected Godur to the job opportunity by introducing him to an executive with the selling company. Separately, Herrera and Godur had a contract to evenly split sale commissions for deals for three years starting July 2015.
“The purpose of this lawsuit is to hold Mr. Godur and his companies accountable for their misconduct in denying my clients the commission that they are rightfully owed,” said Joshua Alper, the attorney who filed the suit July 25.
Alper is partner at Morgan & Morgan in Miami.
Godur’s attorney, Kevin Mason at KPM Law Firm in Boca Raton, declined to comment.
IMC Equity Group, a North Miami-based commercial real estate and private equity company, bought the 382,000-square-foot Festival Marketplace indoor flea market in April 2018 from investment firm R/S Associates of Florida. IMC paid $25 million for the actual building and parking lot that are on 27 acres at 2900 W. Sample Road, and it paid $31 million for the businesses at the flea market.
The suit says Bauso in May 2016 introduced Godur to Doug Meyer, a chief financial officer for the seller, because Meyer was looking for a broker to help sell the marketplace. A month later, Godur introduced Herrera to Meyer.
Both Godur and Herrera worked on marketing the property as well as on helping out on a redevelopment plan by finding an architect and a construction company. Their agreement said they evenly split all sale commissions regardless of who did how much work on a deal, according to the complaint.
Herrera also was OK with the 20% payment to Bauso.
The agreement between Godur and Bauso was only verbal, but the complaint says this is a standard industry practice.
Godur separately bad-mouthed Bauso and Herrera in front of the other as a way to get them to stop talking with each other, helping Godur better hide the deal closing, according to the complaint. Among the misrepresentations he made was that they owe him money. He also represented Herrera in a bad light in front of Meyer, the seller’s CFO, to sever communications between them.
“In fact, Ms. Herrera didn’t know that Mr. Godur had presented an offer to the buyer because at this point he had shut her out,” Alper said.
Godur and Herrera were at one point affiliated with Boca Raton-based real estate agency B Realtors Inc., which had a nonexclusive brokerage agreement with the Festival mall.
Gary Youngman, B Realtors president, declined to comment.
The suit doesn’t specify exactly how much Bauso and Herrera are owed from the sale commission of $2.24 million.
If Bauso received 20% and Herrera and Godur split the rest, Bauso would get $448,000, and Herrera and Godur each would get about $900,000.
Herrera and Bauso are seeking damages and a jury trial. They name two companies registered to Godur as defendants as well. They are the deactivated JV Acquisitions LLC and the still active JVA Global LLC.
The suit lists breach of agreement, breach of contract, breach of implied-in-fact contract, conversion, unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel counts.
The Festival Marketplace has 250 stores businesses ranging from discount stores for shoes, jewelry and fragrances to service providers altering clothes and fixing watches, according to its website.
In the booming South Florida real estate market, properties big and small trade daily. This has created a lot of jobs in the real estate field but also made the region fertile ground for sale commission disputes.
“Obviously in South Florida, real estate deals are hot,” said Alper, the attorney for Herrera and Bauso, “and these types of disputes happen with a fair amount of regularity.”
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllHow Much Coverage Do You Really Have? Valuation and Loss Settlement Provisions in Commercial Property Policies
10 minute readThe Importance of 'Speaking Up' Regarding Lease Renewal Deadlines for Commercial Tenants and Landlords
6 minute readMeet the Attorneys—and Little Known Law—Behind $20M Miami Dispute
Trending Stories
- 1Cravath Elevates 7 to Partnership, Up From Last Year
- 2Kline & Specter Hit With Lawsuit From Another Former Associate
- 3USPTO Director Kathi Vidal Announces Resignation Ahead of Administration Change
- 4As Gen AI Acceptance Grows, Lawyers Race to Mitigate Risks
- 5Decisions Have 'Real-Life Consequences': Juvenile Court Judge Considered for Appellate Bench
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250