Legislature(2003 - 2004)
05/15/2003 07:53 AM Senate L&C
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
CSHB 257(JUD)am-REAL ESTATE LICENSEES:DUTIES & CLAIMS
CHAIR BUNDE announced CSHB 257(JUD)am to be up for consideration
and said he had prepared a committee substitute (CS) for it.
2:30 - 2:32 - at ease
REPRESENTATIVE NORM ROKEBERG, sponsor of HB 257, said this
legislation is a combination of work that has been under way for
about eight years. He explained:
There is nothing in this bill that changes the duties
of a real estate licensee to make a disclosure when
they represent either a buyer, a seller or a dual
agent, both of which are recognized under current
Alaska statute.
He noted in 1991, the legislature required disclosure by the
licensee about his or her relationship and duties in the
transaction to the client. Currently, you can't have
preauthorized permission from a house seller, who may have
transferred out of state, to show his house, which is what is
occurring right now because of a recent court interpretation.
The bill encompasses the right to have a preauthorized dual
agency relationship, allowing a property to be presented and
marketed.
CHAIR BUNDE asked if the CS would still provide consumer
protection for the dual agency.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG replied absolutely. It only allows
preauthorization and limits any remedy if there's a failure or a
technical breakdown, like not getting the paperwork signed at
the right time.
CHAIR BUNDE asked if a person could sue to recover an economic
loss.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG replied that is correct.
SENATOR GARY STEVENS moved to adopt SCS CSHB 257, version X, as
the working document. There were no objections and it was so
ordered.
CHAIR BUNDE asked if that was the document Representative
Rokeberg was speaking to.
REPRESENTATIVE ROKEBERG said that is correct. He also said he
had to go to anther meeting so his staff, Heather Nobrega, would
continue to answer questions.
SENATOR RALPH SEEKINS asked about the current penalty for not
explaining the preauthorization situation to a client. He asked
if there is a timeline for disclosure under the current law.
MS. HEATHER NOBREGA, staff to Representative Rokeberg, answered
the current law is interpreted to mean the disclosure has to be
made before the agent walks in the front door of that house.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if it is acceptable for the clients to
sign a paper later saying they understood it.
MS. NOBREGA replied that the way the law is interpreted, the
agent would be in violation of the law.
CHAIR BUNDE said it was explained to him that under current law,
not only do you need permission, you need written permission
every time you show that property. This bill would allow blanket
permission.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if that requirement is in statute or was
set by precedent.
MS. NOBREGA answered that is how the court recently interpreted
the statute so it's a combination of both.
SENATOR STEVENS wanted to know more about the court case and
what other issues were involved.
MR. HOWARD TRICKEY, Prudential Jack White and Prudential Vista,
said the problem with the current law is that the statute is
vague and ambiguous and allowed the court to make its
interpretation in a single case that was just litigated under
the statute. The main part of the case had to do with
misrepresentation and breach of fiduciary duties under common
law. As a sideshow in the case, the ambiguous clause about
disclosures that Representative Rokeberg talked about - when a
seller or buyer receives specific "assistance from an agent,"
was interpreted to have to happen at the initial showing of a
property.
A number of claims in that court case would not be affected by
the proposed legislation - for breach of fiduciary duty and tort
claims - contentions that the agent had breached her contractual
obligation and violated general common law agency principles.
That was the focus of the decision by the Superior Court judge
in that case. The contention was that the agent had
misrepresented the value of the property as she had information
that indicated the property was worth less than the asking
price. The buyer's contention was that he suffered actual
damages because he paid too much for the property. Under the
proposed amendment, if a buyer is damaged and suffers actual
damages by virtue of a violation of the statute, they can bring
claim under the statute as well as bring a claim under the
common law of agency law, tort law or contract law.
Section 4 of the CS allows for a remedy limited to actual
damages for violation of the statute. The House version said
there would be no cause of action for a violation of this
statute. The reason they want to limit the remedy to actual
damages is that industry is facing devastating financial
consequences from class action plaintiffs' lawyers who want to
bring and are asserting the claim in a pending case over a
transaction where no one suffered any actual damages. All they
are seeking is a return of the commissions and punitive damages.
They feel that is an unfair financial exposure and risk to an
industry (a lot of small business people) that cannot cover
itself.
SENATOR STEVENS asked what actual damages really meant.
MR. TRICKEY replied that actual damages would be the cost to a
buyer who paid too much or a seller who sold for too little, if
the damage was caused by the lack of disclosure that is required
by the statute. Another type would be if the property had a
defect or needed a repair.
The bill says the plaintiff's remedy for violation of the
statute would be limited to actual damages, which would be a
recovery of the commissions and punitive damages. Because the
claim is based on a violation of a statute, the legislature has
the constitutional power and authority to limit what remedies
ought to be available for a statutory violation.
CHAIR BUNDE said he had received 158 e-mails about this issue
from around the state and a vast majority of them were in
support.
MR. STEVE CONN, Alaska Public Interest Research Group (AKPIRG),
said he could show members why the legislation would be
egregiously damaging to the consumer:
You're probably aware of how sacrosanct an agency
relationship is and the fiduciary duty that flows
there from. Fiduciary duties, of course, were
established originally in common law. There is no
question that a dual agency or an individual who
purports to be an agent with fiduciary duties to both
buyer and seller is damnably complicated....
The problems, not in the order of their severity, are
it appears that the dual agency concept is expanded to
lessors and lessees as well as buyers and sellers. So
now there is not only unsophisticated buyers and
sellers, but unsophisticated lessors and lessees who
have to suffer through the question of can they trust
their agent. Language in the CS doesn't clarify; if
anything, it muddles the written authorization until
the licensee's relationship with the party is
completely established. Now, if that is not subject to
a thousand different interpretations by the court, by
the buyer, by the seller, leading to more
complications, I don't know what is.
The limitation of simple remedies is particularly bad,
not only in future cases, but what is more outrageous
than that is that you are being called to intervene in
ongoing litigation about which you have heard only one
side and not a very clear picture of that one side.
Apparently, under the committee substitute you're
being asked to take this legislation and apply it to
whatever action out there.... in court... to re-
determine the whole relationship retroactively....
MR. CONN said that art. 1, sec. 15 of the Alaska Constitution
prohibits various kinds of state actions and mentions impairment
of contractual relationships. He stated, "This sort of smells
like an unconstitutional action."
He said further:
If the dual agency arrangement is too complicated to
handle in terms of parsing out the respective
obligation either in writing or in oral representation
and is too burdensome, then they shouldn't do it. They
should allow some other agency to handle the other
side of the transaction or they should consider a
breakdown into agents who represent exclusively buyers
and exclusively sellers.
CHAIR BUNDE noted that the committee just went through a back
wages issue, which was retroactive and that was deemed to be
constitutional by the legislative legal folks.
MS. LINDA GARRISON, real estate broker, Number One Agency, said
they had spent a lot of hours on this issue to show that the
consumer is the one that should be thought of here. She was not
surprised that members received so many e-mails in support of
this legislation because a lot of agents have been violating
state law and got caught. Now they want to change the law to
reflect what they have been doing for a long time.
She said the House removed the retroactive clause on this bill
because it recognized that was wrong. In conclusion she urged
members to not weaken the common law of agencies and to not make
the law retroactive.
MR. DAVID GARRISON said he is an associate broker and owns
several businesses, one of which leases properties. He explained
that one of the findings of fact in the lawsuit is that there
were offers presented to the agent who did not present them to
the seller. The agent stated that the seller would only take a
full-price offer. She did not give disclosures. She told the
buyer he had to buy the property from her. The acts were
egregious and that is why punitive damages were awarded. The
case settled a year and a half ago. He noted that no other
situations like that had occurred since then.
MR. GARRISON said he had a problem with section 4, which limits
liability.
The law now is strong enough.... The problem is that
these companies which have 300 agents don't train
their personnel well. It is a matter of education. And
that's one of the things that needs to be brought
forward - better education.
He opposed the dual agency relationship because it only benefits
the agent.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he was a party to this case.
MR. GARRISON replied no. He is familiar with it because he sat
on the agency task force and read the findings of the court.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked him if he is a dual agent.
MR. GARRISON replied that AAA Customer Services owns most of the
properties it deals with.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he advocated for single agency.
MR. GARRISON replied that he is an advocate for single agency,
but also tries to be realistic about the fact that large
companies have this problem. He maintained, "The disclosure
needs to be there though, and they need to do it."
SENATOR SEEKINS asked which part of section 4 he didn't like.
MR. GARRISON replied limiting the amount of damages for
nondisclosure.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he thought someone should be allowed to
get punitive damages, not just actual damages.
MR. GARRISON replied yes.
SENATOR SEEKINS asked if he thought a clerical error that could
be an error of timing should be cause for punitive damages.
MR. GARRISON replied yes. He said also that it's just not
possible to be a buyer's agent and a seller's agent at the same
time. He stated, "It's like one attorney representing both sides
of a divorce."
MS. GARRISON said she felt strongly about that section also. She
did not think the public right for any remedy should be blocked
in this way. She maintained, "We have a very good check and
balance system."
MR. GARRISON clarified that he is not saying there should be
punitive damages for a clerical error. In the court case, the
agent told the court that was how she did business and that's
how she would continue to do business. That's what was found as
a grievous act, which is what punitive damages are all about.
3:15 p.m.
TAPE 03-35, SIDE A
MR. TRICKEY said he thought this bill protects consumers because
it allows them to recover for actual damages; it doesn't in any
way change the common law of agency at all. Most of the people
who say it will don't understand the legislation. Also, most of
the comments about a pending case are about the Bonnie Maynard
case and this is not about that case. He indicated, "If that
case went to trial today under this statute, there would be the
same result, because there were misrepresentations made in that
case...."
CHAIR BUNDE said that Ms. Maynard still has her real estate
license and asked why the State Real Estate Commission had not
met to discipline her yet.
MR. TRICKEY replied that he didn't know where the case stands in
terms of the disciplinary process, but an administrative
proceeding [is underway] to address whether discipline should be
taken against her as a licensee.
SENATOR SEEKINS moved to pass SCS CSHB 257(L&C), version X, from
committee with individual recommendations. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
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