Glendale Board of Realtors v. Hounsell

Opinion

COBEY, J.

This case presents the question whether the Glendale Board of Realtors (hereafter usually the Board) has violated the Cartwright Act (Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 16720, 16726) by generally denying to nonmembers of the Board access to its multiple listing service.

1

We hold that it has on the authority of

Marin County Bd.

[212]

of Realtors, Inc.

v.

Palsson,

16 Cal.3d 920 [130 Cal.Rptr. 1, 549 P.2d 833], and the record before us. We will therefore reverse the trial court’s judgment to the

2

Discussion

In

Palsson

our Supreme Court decided that the Marin County Board of Realtors had violated the Cartwright Act (1) by limiting its membership to persons primarily engaged in the real estate business (an issue not present in this case) and (2) by denying nonmembers access to its multiple listing service. (16 Cal.3d at p. 924.) The Glendale Board here claims that

Palsson’s

conclusion of anti-trust violation rested upon the joint presence of these two anti-competitive practices and therefore where only one exists as in the present case,

Palsson

is without precedential effect. This is a misreading of

Palsson. Palsson

considered separately under the rule of reason standard the anti-competitive effect of

each

of these practices and concluded that each, as practiced by the Marin Board, constituted a violation of the Cartwright Act. (16 Cal.3d at pp. 935-938, 938-940.)