Jury rules napkin promise must be honored in news site case

ANCHORAGE (AP) — An Alaska jury has ordered the buyer of a news website to make good on a payment promise she had scrawled on a cocktail napkin.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that jurors on Thursday ordered Alice Rogoff to pay more than $850,000 to Tony Hopfinger.

Rogoff purchased a majority stake in the Alaska Dispatch website from Hopfinger in 2009. Her company bought the Anchorage Daily News in 2014 and merged the businesses.

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Hopfinger sued Rogoff, claiming she failed to pay him $100,000 annually for 10 years as promised in a note on the cocktail napkin.

Rogoff’s attorney argued that terms were stated to commit Hopfinger to work for a decade and that he deserved nothing when he left.

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