While Ryan D’Aprile may have cashed in with the acquisition of his eponymous residential real estate brokerage by Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group, his former business partners in a related title company claim he stepped on their backs with the deal.
The former partial owners of D’Aprile Properties’ in-house title company, called Hubbard Street Title, sued D’Aprile, the brokerage’s founder, with a Cook County court complaint filed in January. They allege D’Aprile breached his fiduciary duty to the title company.
Partners in the title company, Joseph Talarico and Don Bozovsky, each owned 25 percent of the title company, while D’Aprile owned the other 50 percent, and its stream of business was reliant on clearing deals brokered by D’Aprile’s firm. Talarico and Bozovsky are seeking $5 million in damages from D’Aprile.
The suit claims D’Aprile did not give the title company’s other partners prior notice about the brokerage’s sale to Coldwell, and that he instead notified them on December 15 that he had sold D’Aprile Properties and an associated mortgage lending outfit Midwest Lending Corporation to Coldwell Banker. News of the acquisition was broken by The Real Deal the next day.
D’Aprile told Talarico that he “had to be out of the title business by December 31, 2022, and that there would be no more referrals of business from D’Aprile Properties” because of the sale, according to the suit.
D’Aprile then began directing business to Home Title, the Coldwell Banker-affiliated title company, instead of Hubbard Street. The suit also claims that D’Aprile solicited agents from D’Aprile and attorneys with Hubbard Street to do business with Coldwell Banker.
Because D’Aprile stopped referring business to Hubbard Street, business dropped and the company ceased operations last month, the suit says.
Coldwell Banker Realty Group and its president, Mike Prodhel, are also named in the suit, which alleges that Talarico asked D’Aprile for a meeting with Prodehl to discuss the title company, and D’Aprile refused to set one up. The suit claims that Prodehl and Coldwell Banker were aware of D’Aprile’s actions and his alleged breach of fiduciary duty.
“D’Aprile essentially sold the business of the plaintiff without the other members receiving any compensation,” the suit said. “D’Aprile’s conduct undermined and destroyed the business of the plaintiff.”
In addition to the $5 million in damages from D’Aprile, Hubbard Street is also asking the court to establish a trust for all of the money and profit the defendants have received from diverting its business, as well as court costs and interest.
“This alleged incident precedes Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group’s involvement with D’Aprile Properties and we believe adding our name to the lawsuit has no merit,” Coldwell Banker said In a statement.
Attorneys for Hubbard Street didn’t return a request for comment. Neither did Ryan D’Aprile.
The lawsuit marks the third legal battle involving D’Aprile in the months leading up to and after its acquisition by Coldwell.
Earlier this month, D’Aprile sued Peter Moulton, its former vice president of agent training and development, alleging he has “aggressively recruited” agents to Fulton Grace in violation of a non-solicitation agreement he signed while working with D’Aprile, in a Cook County court complaint.
D’Aprile sent a cease and desist letter to Moulton on Dec. 23, saying the company had evidence that Moulton had violated the contract and targeted four D’Aprile agents in particular.
The suit alleges that some D’Aprile agents left for Fulton Grace, but doesn’t specify how many or who they are. However, the lawsuit was filed weeks after 18 agents from D’Aprile left to join competing brokerage Fulton Grace Realty in a newly established office in suburban Gurnee. The office will be led by Alex Attiah, a former D’Aprile agent, and is set to open in March, according to a Chicago Agent Magazine report on the career moves.
And in September, Texas-based Xpressdocs filed suit against D’Aprile Properties and its owner and CEO Ryan D’Aprile in Illinois federal court, alleging the real estate firm has refused to pay Xpressdocs for its work. The marketing company said the real estate firm had over $317,000 in unpaid bills. The suit alleged that D’Aprile Properties hadn’t paid its invoices since September 2021. The two companies settled that case in January.
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