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The judge who oversaw the landmark Sitzer | Burnett case through a trial that upended the real estate industry must recuse himself from other ongoing commission litigation due to a clear conflict of interest involving his politician wife, attorneys for Howard Hanna argued this week.
The brokerage made the demand in a new filing with the case known as Gibson, which was filed within hours of the $5.3 billion jury verdict that hit the industry in October 2023.
In the filing, Howard Hanna attorneys said that Matthew Dameron, who was a plaintiff attorney in the Sitzer case through the trial and filed the Gibson case, made donations to the Kansas City, Missouri, City Council campaign of Andrea Bough, a member of the council and wife of Judge Stephen Bough.
Andrea Bough, Kansas City Council
“This Cout [sic] must step down from presiding over this case because it has failed to disclose and resolve — in its own words — an ‘abundantly clear’ ground for disqualification requiring his recusal: the donations of former lead class counsel Matthew Dameron to the political campaign of his wife, Andrea Bough,” the attorneys wrote.
Judge Stephen R. Bough | Photo courtesy of the University of Kansas School of Law
Dameron and his wife contributed $2,750 to the Committee to Elect Andrea Bough, including at least one donation in October 2022.
Howard Hanna attorneys also noted that Brandon Boulware donated to Andrea Bough in 2018, and that Michael Ketchmark made donations to a political action committee that later gave money to her campaign.
Bough recused himself for the same issue in an unrelated case in Missouri. In that case, the gun manufacturer Sig Sauer, a defendant, demanded Bough recuse himself as a result of Dameron’s donations to Andrea Bough. Judge Stephen Bough recused himself three weeks later and the case was transferred to another judge, on Oct. 16, 2024.
Bough previously offered to recuse himself from the Sitzer | Burnett case, but Howard Hanna attorneys wrote that he made no such offer in Gibson.
“Plaintiffs’ counsel’s contributions to Andrea Bough’s political campaign and the Court’s failure to inform the parties in this case of those contributions — despite having volunteered to step down from Burnett for the very same reason — create a clear appearance of impropriety and require disqualification” under court rules, the attorneys wrote.
In the Sitzer case, Bough said that he wasn’t aware that Dameron had donated to his wife’s campaign before the trial. He told attorneys for the real estate defendants that he wasn’t aware of the donation and didn’t believe it represented an ethics violation.
“The legal ethic rules say if I don’t go look at these disclosures, then I can just in essence not have to know who donated to her and that’s how it can go,” Bough said at the time, according to a transcript from May 2024.
Matthew Dameron
Bough also noted at the time that the Kansas City Association of Realtors PAC donated to his wife in October 2019.
During the May meeting, Bough went around the room of attorneys for homeseller plaintiffs and real estate defendants and asked each if they’d like him to remove himself. If any objected to the appearance of a conflict, Bough said he would be “more than glad to step down based on that,” according to the transcript. None objected.
Howard Hanna attorneys said that they were unaware of the donations until January.
Dameron withdrew from the Gibson case on Oct. 22, 2024, six days after Bough recused himself in the Sig Sauer case.
If Bough were to recuse himself from the Gibson case, the U.S. District Court would have a limited number of judges to pick from. One of the judges in the court’s jurisdiction is Judge Roseann Ketchmark, Michael Ketchmark’s sister-in-law.
Dameron referred a request for comment to Ketchmark, who called the filing an “attack on the court,” and said he would respond soon.
Michael Ketchmark
Ketchmark said that attorneys at the law firm representing Howard Hanna also made donations to the judge’s wife, including attorney Rob Adams, who is listed as lead attorney for Hanna Holdings. (The company said that while Adams is listed in court as a lead attorney, attorneys from a different law firm, WilmerHale, are leading the case.)
“There’s nothing wrong with supporting a candidate for city council,” Ketchmark added. “Howard Hanna waited to raise this meritless argument until after it lost all its motions trying to escape accountability in Missouri. That’s wrong.”
Howard Hanna is among the relatively few real estate defendants who have yet to reach settlement agreements in the homeseller litigation.
The National Association of Realtors reached a $418 million settlement agreement that covered more than 1 million real estate agents and brokerages that transacted over $2 billion in sales volume in 2022, leaving those firms to negotiate settlements on their own.
Bough approved the agreement after an Oct. 31, 2024 final hearing.
Email Taylor Anderson
Editor’s Note: This story was updated after it was published with additional context from Hanna Holdings.
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