A 12-person jury in Orange County awarded commercial real estate auction platform Ten-X a $6.7 million verdict for breach of contract and fraud. The verdict granted Ten-X $6.4 million in punitive damages and $300,000 in compensatory damages.
Attorneys at Newport Beach-based law firm Call & Jensen, ranked No. 53 in the Business Journal’s law list (see page 30), represented Ten-X in a complaint brought against Cody Lutsch and companies associated with him. Lutsch, and his companies, listed a commercial property for sale on the Ten-X platform.
The auction for that property, according to Ten-X’s attorneys, ended with a $2.55 million winning bid. The winning bidder, however, disappeared.
Ten-X investigated the matter and discovered a scheme – the seller was the winning bidder. Lutsch, according to the case, created a fake profile and bid on his own auction to artificially inflate the value of the property he was selling.
The jury, according to Call & Jensen, deliberated for a few hours before returning with a verdict in favor of Ten-X.
Call & Jensen attorneys Dave Sugden, Aaron Renfro and Lisa Sandoval represented Ten-X at trial.
“Ten-X takes its reputation as an ethical and trustworthy business seriously,” Sugden said in a statement after the May 2024 verdict. “The jury was able to not only right the wrong committed against Ten-X but to also ensure the defendant is accountable for its behavior.”
The trial attorneys named Sugden “California Trial Lawyer of the Year” for 2023/2024.
Defendant Lutsch was represented by Jason Koch of the Law Office of Jason P. Koch.
Fat Property LLC and Lemmings LLC were also defendants in the lawsuit; they were represented by Dana Oliver of the Oliver Law Center Inc.
The pretrial judge was Craig Griffin, while Shawn Nelson oversaw proceedings during trial.
— Parimal M. Rohit
