Discount Broker’s $15,000 Settlement Upheld by Court : Real estate: A broker wins a court order that pays her damages and bars another broker from treating her unfairly because of her discount rates.

A Santa Clarita Valley real estate broker has won a court order against another broker she had accused of blacklisting her firm for its discount rates, refusing to pay her agents market rates on shared property sales.

In a ruling Monday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Workman upheld an out-of-court settlement reached last month between discount broker Jeannette Sharar and the broker she accused in the state antitrust lawsuit, Marcia Gaskill, owner of two Realty World franchises.

The settlement orders Gaskill to pay Sharar $15,255 in damages and barred Gaskill’s firms from treating Sharar or her agents differently than others in the business, according to court records.

Sharar’s attorney, Marvin G. Claitman of Encino, called the ruling a victory for consumers and discount brokers. Sharar’s firm, Sharar Associates, advertised 2% commissions instead of the standard 6%.

Claitman said the ruling “puts a stop to a practice that we felt was retaliatory. The primary goal was not a matter of recovering monetary damages but trying to put a stop to the discrimination.”

A spokeswoman for Gaskill declined comment and Gaskill’s attorney, David L. Candeaux of Encino, could not be reached Tuesday.

The case, filed in January, 1989, claimed Gaskill’s firms--Valencia Homes Inc. and Cheyenne Properties Inc.--offered Sharar’s agents what industry calls “punitive splits,” or a lower commission than generally extended in shared sales. For example, Sharar claimed, her agents were offered 1% commissions although most others would be offered a 3% fee.

Sharar, a Santa Clarita planning commissioner, argued that the lower commissions not only discriminated against her firm for its discounts, but also discouraged other brokers from following her example.

Although industry representatives contended that 6% commissions are no longer prevalent in today’s competitive market, consumer advocates agreed with Sharar, saying most real estate brokers remained resistant to cutting their fees.

The case was settled out of court last month. But Sharar’s appearance on a Feb. 18 radio talk show prompted Gaskill to claim that the terms of their agreement had been improperly disclosed and she refused to comply with the settlement, Claitman said.

In a hearing Monday, Workman said he had listened to a tape recording of the radio program and found no violation of the Feb. 16 settlement agreement.

Claitman said he and Candeaux were still working out the final language of the judgment, which has yet to be signed by the judge and become official.