NAR and Move against Zillow suit continues
A legal dispute between Zillow, the National Association of Realtors, and Move Inc., which operates realtor.com, continues on in Seattle after a judge ordered additional depositions this week for senior Zillow employee Curt Beardsley and a hired expert witness.
Move and NAR are alleging that former realtor.com President Errol Samuelson and Beardsley, who also worked at realtor.com, engaged in unlawful communication by exchanging highly sensitive information with Zillow while they both still worked for realtor.com. The companies allege that Samuelson and Beardsley used cloud-based e-mail, text messages, and telephone calls on a “burner” mobile device to communicate with Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff.
Samuelson and Beardsley allegedly discussed a then-confidential potential transaction, as well as business initiatives being undertaken by Move in support of realtor.com Move and NAR also claim that Zillow and its personnel have both hidden and destroyed evidence that would show their unlawful conduct.
A recent letter from former Vice President of Zillow Chris Crocker provided a revelation for this case. The letter, received by Move and the NAR, included allegations that Zillow had stolen realtor.com databases and was hiding stolen intellectual property in cloud storage accounts. The defendants produced a database that confirmed its creation and maintenance by Move, but that it had been accessed by a user called “Curt” both before and after Beardsley began working at Zillow in March 2014.
Beardsley has now been ordered by the Seattle Court to refrain from discarding other files or potential evidence. The court is also conducting a forensic review of some Zillow computers and cloud storage accounts.
However, the Zillow court case is biting back as Zillow has now countersued Move and NAR, claiming that the letter not only hurt their reputation, but contained lies and falsehoods. NAR responded to this by filing a motion to dismiss the counterclaims. They cited Washington law and common law privilege for fair and accurate reports of judicial proceedings.
The trial is scheduled for June 2016, with results of the forensic research expected at the end of the month.
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