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Brokers Win $2 Million In Suit Over Sales Fee

By VICTORIA SLIND-FLOR 		 
Los Angeles Daily Journal
August 27, 1986

After four days of deliberation, a Norwalk Superior Court jury awarded $2 million Tuesday to two real estate brokers who claimed a former client tried to defraud them out of sales commission.

Will Rogers Realty and Carlisle, Inc., were awarded $1.6 million in punitive damages and compensatory damages of $400,000 plus prejudgment interest of 7 percent on the $400,000.

The two brokers had signed a listing agreement with John McGonigle Sr., a retired obstetrician, and his wife Virginia, to sell a piece of commercial property at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy Street in West Los Angeles.

According to Philip Ganz, Jr., the attorney who represented the brokers, during the trial Virginia McGonigle had repeatedly denied under oath that her signature was on one of the listing agreements.

Daniel Kolkey, one of two Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher attorneys who represented the McGonigles, said that the issue was not so much the validity of the signature as it was the terms of the listing agreement. He said the brokers had presented two separate listing agreements, and one was for a non-standard 300-day period that appeared to have been altered.

He said that at the time of deposition, Virginia McGonigle had contended that she had not signed the non-standard agreement. "She looked at the context. She knew she hadn't signed a 300-day listing, so concluded it couldn't be her signature. Maybe she signed the paper document but maybe it had been changed."

Kolkey said the McGonigles probably would appeal.

Copyright 1986 Daily Journal Corp. Reprinted with Permission.

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