{"id":229105,"date":"2026-03-31T20:38:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229105\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T20:38:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T20:38:17","slug":"judge-issues-summary-judgment-in-arlington-board-of-realtors-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/229105\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge issues summary judgment in Arlington Board of Realtors lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Lance Murray, Arlington Report
March 31, 2026<\/p>\n

A Fort Worth judge issued a summary judgment March 24 in a lawsuit brought against the Arlington Board of Realtors, or ARBOR, last year by some of its members that alleged problems<\/a> with the election of officers and questioned a reduction of more than $800,000 in the organization\u2019s cash and investment account balances since 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plaintiffs have won. They gain nothing personally from the victory, only the satisfaction that ARBOR will move forward with transparency and follow the law and the bylaws of the corporation. This came at a great price, including attacks and misrepresentations of what was involved in the suit they did not want to file, but were forced to in order to get things corrected,\u201d plaintiffs\u2019 attorney J. Shelby Sharpe of Sharpe Allen PLLC told the Arlington Report.<\/p>\n

The judgment was issued by Judge J. Patrick Gallagher of the 96th Judicial District Court. It ordered \u201call steps necessary to allow the foregoing persons to exercise these offices,\u201d which includes access to all the books and records of the Arlington Board of Realtors.<\/p>\n

The suit was filed in February 2025 and came on the heels of the previous year\u2019s unsuccessful merger attempt between ARBOR and the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors. It sought information about how ARBOR\u2019s business was conducted.<\/p>\n

Last year, board president Corey Harris told the Arlington Report that the allegations \u201cunequivocally are highly inflated and erroneous allegations on their surface.\u201d Harris has not answered a request by the Report for comment.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit questioned the validity of officer elections in 2023 and 2024 because there were no quorums present.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs issued a statement after the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very pleased with the court\u2019s decision to grant a summary judgment in the plaintiff\u2019s favor. This is great news for all of the Arlington Board of Realtors officers, directors and members as we can now return to a fully transparent and properly governed nonprofit association,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cFurther, it is great news for other nonprofits associations in the State of Texas and across the entire United States. This lawsuit was never about any personal gain on the part of the plaintiffs but rather to protect the association we have loved for many decades. We are anxious to move forward in serving our members with excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

On March 12, Gallagher held a hearing at which he heard a motion by plaintiffs Martha Dent, Coy Garrett, Tracy Stanley, Jamie Adams, Sundee Hinchliffe, Dee Davey, Larry W. Johnson, Amy Cearnal, Paula Wommack, Mike Hale, Shannon Moser and Sharon Parrish.<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200bLance Murray is a freelance contributor covering business for the Arlington Report. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org\/2026\/03\/31\/judge-issues-summary-judgment-in-arlington-board-of-realtors-lawsuit\/”>article<\/a> first appeared on <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/fortworthreport.org”>Arlington Report<\/a> and is republished here under a <a target=”_blank” href=”https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/”>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<img src=”https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fortworthreport.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/cropped-favicon.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;quality=80&amp;ssl=1″ style=”width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;”><\/p>\n

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