Judge John Koeltl
Sitt Asset Management LLC is agent for Aroostook Centre LLC, which owns a shopping mall in Maine. Their 2005 ground lease with retailer Lowe's did not provide for brokerage commissions nor were such commissions negotiated. Lowe's was not a party in the 2011 action in which Keypoint Partners LLC and The Dartmouth Co. Inc. were awarded $833,091, on a quantum meruit theory, for the value of their brokerage services (Brokerage Action). The Brokerage Action parties later entered into a settlement agreement under which Sitt and Aroostook paid them $750,000. Sitt and Aroostook's September 2012 lawsuit charging Lowe's with unjust enrichment was removed to federal district court in October 2012. District court granted Lowe's dismissal. Despite rejecting the claim that Sitt's and Aroostook's claim was barred under Maine's six year limit period for unjust enrichment, the court found that plaintiffs failed to state an unjust enrichment claim under Maine law. Their payment to the brokers was under a settlement to which Lowe's was not a party, nor effected. Further, because plaintiffs did not relieve Lowe's of any payment obligations, plaintiffs' settlement payment to the brokers was not a "benefit" to Lowe's.
