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Australian publisher of ‘Fifty Shades’ ordered to set aside $14.9m in lawsuit over royalties

A Texas judge has ordered Australian Amanda Hayward set aside US$10.7m (A$14.9m) for American Jennifer Lynn Pedroza, her former partner in The Writer’s Coffee Shop (TWCS), the original publisher of the ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ series. 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that judge Susan McCoy would rule on a firm amount Hayward must pay Pedroza once an agreement between the two sides is reached. McCoy said she would allow property to be applied to the amount after Hayward’s attorneys said she did not have US$10m available. 

An attorney for Hayward said the jury decision and the judgement might be appealed. 

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, in February, a jury found Hayward had defrauded Pedroza over royalty rights to the series. Pedroza was one of four original partners in TWCS, which first published the series as ebooks and later sold the publishing rights to Random House. 

The jury found that Hayward and TWCS Operations Proprietary had committed fraud when they ‘induced Ms. Pedroza into a Service Agreement’ that cut Pedroza out of her share of royalties. Hayward was found to have fraudulently restructured the partnership in her favour under the guise of tax avoidance. 

Pedroza first filed suit in 2014.  

 

Category: Local news