Opinion ID: 763285
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Realty One's Business-Tort State-Law Counterclaims

Text: 149 First, Realty One claims that Re/Max personnel repeatedly told Realty One's clients that the adverse-splits policy would hurt their chances of selling their homes, and told Realty One's sales people that the policy thereby harmed them as well. Realty One maintains that these false and maliciously wrongful attacks constitute unfair competition and malicious interference with business relations under Ohio law. The district court dismissed the claim because Realty One provided no evidence of any agent or customer with whom Re/Max had interfered. Although it acknowledges this failure, Realty One contends that the difficulty in demonstrating which customers and which sales agents were lost as a result of the allegedly unlawful conduct is precisely why Realty One sought and should receive injunctive protection rather than damages. However, absent the identification of any irreparable harm, this counterclaim must fail. 150 Second, Realty One claims that Re/Max engaged in malicious litigation, and points to the same evidence that the district court found supported Realty One's antitrust sham-litigation claim. Realty One cites Water Management, Inc. v. Stayanchi, 15 Ohio St.3d 83, 472 N.E.2d 715 (1984). That case, however, has nothing to do with malicious litigation, except for the fact that the court mentions in passing that malicious litigation is one form of unfair competition. See id. at 717. Robb v. Chagrin Lagoons Yacht Club, Inc., 75 Ohio St.3d 264, 662 N.E.2d 9 (1996), on the other hand, sets out the elements of malicious civil prosecution. One requirement is that the plaintiff's person or property have been seized during the course of the prior proceedings. See id. at 13. This element has not been alleged by Realty One. Thus, Realty One's state-law claims were also properly dismissed.