A judge has dismissed a counterclaim by former Town Residential broker Reid Price, who left the firm for a position at Douglas Elliman. Price’s counterclaim implied that he was owed $490,000 in commission payments from his former employer, according to court documents.
New York Supreme Court Judge Eileen Bransten dismissed Price’s claim on August 28, which Price – in turn – appealed on September 2.
The residential brokerage sued Price in September 2013 for allegedly breaching a noncompete agreement by joining Elliman. In the suit, Town claimed that Price owed his former employer almost $500,000.
In his counterclaim, Price maintained the firm owed him money, claiming that the noncompete agreement was “not complete,” based on an email exchange from July 16, 2010 between his lawyer and Town’s laywer. According to that email – which was sent before the noncompete agreement was executed, according to court documents – Town’s executives would be “willing to revisit other compensation issues at a later time as part of a ‘gentleperson’s [sic] agreement,’” according to court filings.
The judge, however, dismissed Price’s claim.
“The (noncompete) agreement defines each aspect of Price’s compensation package in clear detail,” the court document states. “Price’s counterclaim seeks to recover commissions that are explicitly not part of the Agreement.”
Reached by phone, Price declined to comment on the litigation, which is ongoing.
Spokespersons from Douglas Elliman and Town Residential declined to comment.
Price – who headed Town’s new development division and joined the company in 2010 – left his position at Town in April 2013. Before his tenure at Town, where he was one of the firm’s first recruits, Price specialized in new development marketing at Brown Harris Stevens together with former colleague Wendy Maitland, president of sales at Town.