Opinion ID: 453514
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The El Paso Board of Realtors

Text: 19 Approximately one year after establishing Action Real Estate, Park applied to be a member of the Board of Realtors and was promptly admitted. Shortly thereafter, he applied for membership in the MLS and was also admitted. Park claims that despite this evidence of cooperation, the Board participated in the conspiracy to boycott his business. 20 In support of this claim, Park alleges that he was denied specific benefits of Board membership--in particular, the right to have commission charges split in accordance with the MLS listings, the right to be present when contracts were presented, and the right to be free of disparagement and harassment by his fellow Board members. In our view, these allegations, without more, do not implicate the Board in the conspiracy. The Board is less than the sum of its parts: the fact that some members of the Board participated in the boycott conspiracy does not imply that the Board itself participated in the conspiracy. To support such an inference, Park needed to introduce evidence that the Board participated in or condoned the alleged rules violations. For example, Park could have attempted to show that he had brought ethics complaints concerning the alleged rules violations and that the Board had ignored or otherwise acted in bad faith on these complaints. Except in one instance, however, Park failed to bring any ethics complaints. In that instance, the Professional Standards Committee of the Board tentatively found in Park's favor, and referred the case to the Board's Court of Ethics. 13 This conduct hardly implicates the Board in the conspiracy; indeed, it indicates the reverse. 21 In contrast to Park, his fellow Board members were not so reticent about bringing ethics complaints. During Park's first two years of membership in the Board, four complaints were brought against him. Park claims that the Professional Standards Committee of the Board discriminated against him in the adjudication of these complaints and thereby participated in the boycott conspiracy. 22 After a careful examination of the record, we do not find substantial evidence to support this charge. Of the four complaints, the Professional Standards Committee found in Park's favor in one instance, found against Park in two instances, and tentatively found against Park in the final instance but referred the complaint to the Court of Ethics for final action, where it was stayed pending the outcome of the present antitrust suit. Park did not present any evidence that other El Paso Board members publicized his two ethics violations in an effort to dissuade customers from doing business with him. In the two instances where Park was found in violation of the rules, he received written reprimands by letter, but was not punished further. In one of these instances, the member who brought the complaint also received a letter of reprimand for his conduct during the transaction. Although Park strenuously objects to the Committee's findings of misconduct, he failed to present substantial evidence that the Committee acted in bad faith or abused its procedures in order to find him guilty. The only evidence presented by Park in this connection was a taped conversation with Raymond Baca, the Vice-Chairman of the Committee, who stated there was no love lost between Park and several Committee members and that the odds were stacked against [Park]. 11 Rec. at 409. During the same conversation, however, Baca stated that most of the Committee members were honest and that Park had gotten a fair hearing on the complaints filed against him. Id. at 409-10. We do not believe that this evidence, standing alone, is sufficient to support the jury's verdict that the Board participated in the boycott conspiracy. Two reprimands do not an antitrust action make. 23 Finally, Park argues that the Committee's adoption of a prior offense rule in March of 1978 was specifically directed against him and was designed to force him from the Board. Under this rule, Board members who had committed two or more prior ethical violations could have their cases sent to the Court of Ethics for possible suspension or expulsion from the Board. Pursuant to this rule, the Committee referred the fourth complaint brought against Park to the Court for further proceedings, since Park had been found guilty of two previous ethical infractions. The Court, however, did not take any further action against Park, but instead stayed the proceedings during the pendency of the present suit. Except for the approximate coincidence in time of the complaints brought against Park and the adoption of the prior offense rule, there is no evidence to suggest that this rule was adopted in order to force Park from the Board. Park's attempts to characterize the rule as the Park rule, see Appellee's Brief at 23, are without support in the record and are pure speculation, as is his claim that had he not brought the present suit, the Court would have acted under the rule to suspend or expel him from the Board. 24 Because we find that the jury's verdict against the Board was not supported by sufficient evidence, we reverse this portion of the verdict and render judgment for the Board.