Tseng

Defendants and appellants are four brothers (the Tseng Brothers) from China who all work for the family textile business in one capacity or another. The Tseng Brothers own a piece of commercial real property in San Pedro (the Property) as tenants in common, which property is the site of the family’s United States operations—the importation and distribution of clothing.

One of the four brothers, Arthur, has lived in southern California since 1983 and is a naturalized United States citizen. He is the president of the California company which imports the merchandise manufactured by the family business overseas. This company leases the Property from the Tseng Brothers. The other three brothers live and work abroad, in Shanghai and Taiwan.

In August 2004, Arthur met with Frank Kim, a licensed real estate salesperson employed by a company owned by licensed real estate broker William Fox. Arthur entered into a written listing agreement with defendant Fox Industrial Realty (Fox Realty) to sell the Property. Although Fox Realty learned that Arthur was not the sole owner of the Property, it did not request, and did not obtain, written authorization which would permit Arthur to…