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.

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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