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STATE OF MICHIGAN COURT OF APPEALS
BERT ELGERSMA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v RE/MAX OF GRAND RAPIDS, INC, and JOHN POSTMA, Defendants-Appellees. No. 287115 Kent Circuit Court LC No. 05-010539-CK UNPUBLISHED February 11, 2010

Before: Talbot, P.J., and Whitbeck and Owens, JJ. PER CURIAM. Following trial, a jury found that defendant John Postma, a real estate broker for defendant Re/Max of Grand Rapids, breached his fiduciary duty as a real estate broker during the sale of plaintiff Bert Elgersma's home in Byron Center, Michigan. The jury awarded Elgersma $25,000 in damages, which included $5,000 in interest. Elgersma moved for a new trial and/or additur, which the trial court denied. Elgersma appeals as of right. We affirm. I. Basic Facts And Procedural History In March 2002, Postma listed Elgersma's home on the real estate market. It had already been on the market, off and on, for approximately four years. Postma introduced Elgersma to Tom Smith, part owner of Trade Partners, Inc., a life settlement company. A life settlement company is a company that purchases life insurance polices from persons with shorter life expectances (e.g., the elderly or terminally ill). Such a company buys the policy before the insured dies for a price below the expected death benefits of the policy and subsequently pays the rest of the premiums on the policy for the life of the insured. The company, which then owns the future death benefits, can divide up those benefits into parts for sale to investors. Once the insured dies, as long as the premiums have been paid, the life settlement company receives the benefits from the life insurance company, which are then distributed to the investors.1 Smith eventually offered to purchase the home in exchange for a viatical. A viatical is a subset of a life settlement, but it typically refers to a policy purchased on a terminally ill person,

1

29 Appleman on Insurance (2d ed),

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Michigan Law