Gordon & Rees Atlanta partner Chad A. Shultz and Senior Counsel Lauren D. Bellamy recently obtained a favorable jury verdict for their client, the inventor of the super soaker water gun.
Plaintiff was a former in-house patent attorney for Defendant, who, after being laid off, volunteered to work for Defendants for no financial compensation. Defendants accepted Plaintiff’s offer to work without financial compensation, but later gratuitously offered to pay Plaintiff $91,807.69 for the work he had volunteered to do. Plaintiff rejected this offer, and instead submitted a $329,920.50 invoice to Defendants. Plaintiff then submitted a Lien Letter to the Defendants’ largest corporate client, seeking $231,000. Plaintiff then filed a lawsuit seeking over $700,000 from Defendants.
The Court ultimately granted Defendants partial summary judgment, but allowed trial to proceed on several claims and Defendants’ counterclaims. The trial lasted four days. After the close of evidence, the Gordon & Rees team successfully obtained a directed verdict on most of Plaintiff’s claims.
After deliberating for one hour, the jury returned a verdict in favor of Plaintiff for $91,807.69, (the amount Defendant agreed it owed Plaintiff), but also awarded Defendants damages on their counterclaims in the amount of $91,807.69. Thus, the damages award offset the other, which was essentially a defense verdict and big win for Gordon & Rees's client.