After a two-week trial, King County Superior Court Judge Sharon Armstrong has entered Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law in favor of Alexander Hutton Capital on its claims for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty against John and Susan Richards. 

John Richards and Alexander Hutton Capital were partners in an internet yellow pages business.  In 1997, the partnership sold its business to InfoSpace, the purchase price to be determined based upon a two-year earnout provision.  Thereafter, Mr. Richards privately negotiated his own employment agreement with Naveen Jain, InfoSpace’s CEO, contingent on elimination of the earnout.  Mr. Richards made numerous misrepresentations to his partners in order to persuade them to eliminate the earnout. 

Judge Armstrong has now entered 25 pages of Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, finding that John Richards had engaged in an extensive pattern of fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions.  Judgment will be entered against the Richards and in favor of Alexander Hutton Capital in the amount of $3,029,443.80. 

The case was handled by Jeff Tilden and Dan Houser of GMT, along with Will Smart and Ian Birk of Keller Rohrback LLP.  The Findings and Conclusions may be read here.