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They are saying you need to by no means combine enterprise with pleasure.
An amicable cut up between Florida dealer Alyssa Morgan and her ex-husband, John Jansheski, went awry after Morgan agreed to promote the dental items exec’s multi-home property by which she had lived with him whereas they had been nonetheless married.
Now Morgan has sued Jansheski and his firm that offered the property, Starboard Florida IV, in Miami-Dade Circuit Court docket for breach of written and oral contract, unjust enrichment and different counts, after Jansheski seemingly enabled one other agent to comb the itemizing out from Morgan’s toes, The Actual Deal reported.
For a year-and-a-half, Morgan marketed the Star Island mansion in Miami Seaside, and even coordinated showings and introduced a suggestion from a person who finally turned the customer of the property — however at a a lot decrease gross sales value than the one Morgan had initially introduced to her ex-husband.
“On its floor, this case entails an actual property gross sales fee dispute arising from for [sic] the sale of a house positioned at 27 Star Island Drive, Miami Seaside, Florida,” the criticism states.
“On the similar time, on a extra profound degree, this case entails greater than an strange fee dispute between two company events to an arms’-length itemizing contract. Quite, it entails damaged guarantees made by a former husband, Mr. Jansheski (the managing member of Starboard) to his former spouse, Ms. Morgan, who procured the customer for the Inside Community and Starboard, who finally bought the Property, the previous marital house, to guard and take Ms. Morgan’s (and the Inside Community’s) curiosity within the fee on the Property.”
Morgan mentioned the authorized skirmish is about receiving credit score for the work she put into advertising the property.
“[The lawsuit is] about sustaining excessive requirements in our trade, giving credit score the place it’s due and all working collectively,” she instructed TRD in a press release.
The couple divorced in Might 2020. In February 2022, Morgan, who was then affiliated with One Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty, introduced a $70 million supply from CrossCountry Mortgage CEO Ron Leonhardt to Jansheski’s firm, Starboard. In accordance with the lawsuit, Jansheski didn’t approve of the supply, which he referred to as a “backside feeder quantity” and “refused to current any counteroffer.” On the time, the criticism states, Morgan let Jansheski know that the customer remained within the property, regardless of the shortage of any counteroffer.
Morgan continued to characterize the property, and in August 2022, she launched the Aspect-backed Inside Community. Morgan and Jansheski then entered into an unique gross sales settlement in October 2022 and in December 2022, the Inside Community and Jansheski’s Starboard Florida IV amended the itemizing settlement to lift the overall fee quantity from 3 p.c to 4.5 p.c. The settlement stipulated that Inside Community would obtain a 2 p.c fee on the sale.
The property’s asking value was dropped from $77 million to about $74.7 million in January 2023. A month later, Jansheski’s Starboard ended the unique itemizing settlement with Morgan whereas permitting Inside Community to proceed to market the property, the lawsuit states.
By Might 2023, Morgan had organized a walkthrough with the customer, in response to textual content messages cited within the lawsuit submitting. By Aug. 1, nevertheless, Jansheski had handed the itemizing over to Dina Goldentayer at Douglas Elliman. In the meantime, Morgan had scheduled a exhibiting of the property for Aug. 6 and, in response to the lawsuit, Jansheski had put in writing that “The Inside Community had been protected for its exhibiting” on that date, in response to the go well with.
“I instructed you you’re protected on this deal are you involved about this explicit deal?” Jansheski texted Morgan on Aug. 5, 2023, an attachment to the criticism reveals.
Two days later, the customer submitted their last supply, which was accepted by Jansheski — and Morgan didn’t get a cent of the fee.
Morgan “labored actually, actually laborious for a very long time … and he paid her nothing,” the dealer’s lawyer, Alexander Almazan, mentioned. “The contract even got here to her, and the plaintiff had obtained from this similar purchaser a suggestion for over $10 million greater than was rejected by the vendor.”
The customer was Equities Property Holdings, the lawsuit states. The LLC, whose proprietor was beforehand unknown, seems to be tied to Ron Leonhardt, as Leonhardt’s title is listed on a discover of graduation that was submitted earlier this 12 months for a renovation of the pool, TRD reported.
The property incorporates a renovated 1924 visitor home that was designed by Walter D. Garmo and a more recent waterfront mansion designed by South African-based SAOTA. At one level the property, which encompasses a complete of about 23,000 sq. toes of residing house, in response to an previous itemizing description, was asking $90 million.
Had Morgan been attributed because the itemizing agent on the $57 million sale, she would have obtained a fee of $1.14 million. Goldentayer will not be talked about as a defendant within the lawsuit. Chad Carroll of Compass represented the customer.
Morgan first filed a criticism in November 2023, and the case was dismissed by Miami-Dade Circuit Court docket Choose Joseph Perkins in August 2024. This September, Morgan filed an amended criticism that added the allegation of breach of oral contract. On Oct. 3, 2024, Jansheski and Starboard filed a movement to dismiss that argued Morgan is barred from in search of out a fee from Jansheski and that there is no such thing as a oral contract exception to Florida regulation.
Goldentayer was peripherally concerned in one other lawsuit involving an expensive transaction in Miami earlier this 12 months, though she was not named as a defendant. A homeseller sued Douglas Elliman for deceptive him in regards to the id of the customer of his Indian Creek Village property, and finally conceding a $6 million low cost on the sale. The customer of the house ended up being Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Goldentayer and two different Elliman brokers brokered the deal.
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