Corcoran executive vice president Tresa Hall (left) is a target in the Corcoran client list case, brought by Sarit Shmueli (right)

Aiming to send a message to the real estate industry, former Corcoran Group agent Sarit Shmueli has filed to appeal a recent court ruling stripping her of punitive damages a jury awarded her after she claimed the company stole her electronic client list. Three years ago, the New York State Supreme Court found in favor of Shmueli, who had sued the company alleging that Corcoran, and in particular, executive vice president Tresa Hall, had stolen her client list “deliberately and maliciously” from her computer after Shmueli was fired. Shmueli was awarded $400,000 in compensation and $1.2 million in punitive damages. Corcoran appealed the decision, and the Appellate Division in December 2009 upheld the compensatory damages ruling, but decided to vacate the punitive damage award on the grounds that “precluding a terminated employee from having access to its computer system does not evince a high degree of moral turpitude,” according to court documents. On Jan. 6, Shmueli filed a request for the case to be heard by a higher court, the New York Court of Appeals. In the request, Shmueli’s attorney, Herald Price Fahringer, argued that the Appellate Division made a mistake when it referred to her as an “employee” of the Corcoran Group. Rather, like most city real estate agents, Shmueli was an independent contractor, he said. [more]

Some of the most commented stories of the year include (from left): the Corcoran Group’s court appeal, the Marcus & Millichap sham sale lawsuit, the closure of Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, and Kent Swig’s Square Mile woes

The most popular story of the year based on the number of comments it has received on The Real Deal Web site is Corcoran appeal of broker privacy ruling begins. The item is about the the beginning of oral arguments in the Corcoran Group’s appeal of a State Supreme Court ruling that found the firm took advantage of former broker Sarit Shmueli by accessing her client list after she was terminated from the agency. The article has generated 232 comments. The second most commented article is a follow-up story on the Corcoran-Shmueli case. The story, “Corcoran ruling upheld in appellate court,” addresses how the ruling against Corcoran was upheld, in what is considered a
landmark case that found agents — and not firms — to be in ownership
of their own client lists. The item received 197 comments. The third most popular story based on comment tally is a question The Real Deal posed to readers: “Who is the best real estate lawyer out there?” One hundred and sixty-one people submitted responses. See the full list of the most commented stories of the year, in order of popularity, here. [more]

A ruling against the Corcoran Group was upheld yesterday, in a landmark case that found agents — and not firms — to be in ownership of their own client lists, Crain’s reported. Three years ago, the New York state Supreme Court ruled in favor of ex-Corcoran Group agent Sarit Shmueli, who claimed that her former employer, and executive vice president Tresa Hall, in particular, had stolen her client list “deliberately and maliciously” off of her computer after she had been fired. Shmueli was awarded $400,000 in compensation and $1.2 million in punitive damages. The brokerage’s appeal, which began proceedings last month, didn’t go completely unrewarded, however. The appellate court ruled to vacate the punitive damage award for Shmueli, on the grounds that the “defendant’s practice of precluding a terminated employee from having access to its computer system does not evince a high degree of moral turpitude,” according to court filings. Shmueli said that she will pursue an appeal of the ruling in order to regain her punitive damage award.

Oral arguments began yesterday in the Corcoran Group’s appeal of a State Supreme Court ruling that found the firm took advantage of a former broker by accessing her client list after she was terminated from the agency, Crain’s reported. The landmark decision in favor of former top Corcoran broker Sarit Shmueli shows that client lists are germane to the broker’s interests and not the brokerage, and therefore cannot be accessed by an employer without the agent’s consent. In the filing, the court charged the Corcoran Group and, specifically, executive vice president Tresa Hall, who won REBNY’s lifetime achievement award last month, with “deliberately and maliciously stealing computerized valuable client lists of Sarit Shmueli upon her termination.” Shmueli was awarded $1.2 million in punitive damages and $400,000 in compensatory damages as a result of the case. The court began hearing arguments in the appeal yesterday and a ruling is expected by the end of the year. After yesterday’s court date, Shmueli said she’s confident that the court will find in her favor once again. “I don’t believe based on yesterday’s hearing that the Appellate Division will give Corcoran the license to steal again,” Shmueli said. Yesterday’s oral arguments come on the heels of a ruling in another case, in which a judge found the firm had been “negligent” with e-mails in connection with the sale of a Brooklyn condo.