businessman and a firm of Hamilton real estate agents is over at last.

The seven-year row went all the way to the Privy Council in London, the highest court in the Commonwealth, where yesterday five Law Lords finally settled it.

Their ruling meant celebrations at the Par-la-Ville Place offices of realtors Cooper Associates and bitter defeat for businessman Mr. Brent Kelly. As for Mr. Perot, he had other things on his mind -- even though the dispute centred on a Tucker's Town house belonging to his family.

The house, Caliban, was sold by Mr. Kelly to the Texas billionaire's son, Mr.

Ross Perot Jr.

Back then, in 1985, the $2.5 million price was the highest ever paid for a Tucker's Town home.

Around the same time, Mr. Perot Sr. bought another house, Vertigo, at the other end of exclusive Winsor Beach.

Mr. Kelly, an American resident in Bermuda, claimed he was gypped. He went to the courts and argued that he could have sold for a higher price had he been told by Coopers about the second Perot deal.

He said knowledge of the Vertigo sale would have helped him bargain a higher price for Caliban, since the two homes formed one seven-acre estate.

He denied Coopers their $125,000 commission and sued them for $1 million.

Coopers sued back for the commission, saying the $2 million Vertigo sale was confidential between Mr. Perot and the owner.

The $2.5 million price for Caliban was the best they could have got, they argued.

Coopers also said the Vertigo sale was a separate transaction, a month before the Caliban deal. And they claimed the two properties were separate and did not form a family compound.

In 1988 a Supreme Court judge agreed with Mr. Kelly and awarded him $200,000, plus the right to keep the commission. In 1990 the Court of Appeal reversed the ruling and ordered Mr. Kelly to pay all legal costs.

At the two-day Privy Council hearing last June, Mrs. Helen Cooper described the controversial presidential candidate as a tough, take-it-or-leave-it bargainer. He began his search for a Bermuda home in 1982, and then leased Caliban for a year to "see how Bermuda would work for him''.

After buying the property the family spent another $2 million renovating and extending it.

Yesterday the Law Lords decision reached Coopers' lawyer, Mr. Geoffrey Bell.

Coopers had won, Mr. Kelly's appeal was dismissed and they would get their commission. The Court of Appeal ruling was confirmed.

"Coopers are very pleased,'' said Mr. Bell. "They obviously feel vindicated.'' In their judgment, the Lords announced Coopers had not committed a breach of duty by failing to reveal Mr. Perot's interest in buying Vertigo, since the information was confidential to the owner of Vertigo.

Since buying property in Bermuda Mr. Perot has jealously guarded his privacy.

But he was at the centre of controversy when allegations surfaced that he had arranged for a chunk of reef to be blasted so he could get his luxury yacht nearer his property.

He said then: "If I'm going to become the centre of attention, I am going to sell my houses and leave.'' In the latest US poll, Mr. Perot is a distant third in the race for the White House. But his favourability rating is above that of President Bush.

Mr. Ross Perot.