In our commercial litigation practice, sometimes we come upon more unusual fact patterns. Even though our practice is predominantly in Gotham City, Gotham has reciprocity with Springfield.

Ned Flanders and Patty Bouvier were equal business partners in an insurance business, where both were licensed, and both generated their own clientele. Ned from the business community, place of worship, and networking events. Patty from bars, houses of ill-repute, and sitting on a curb on the side of the road. Ned wanted to part ways with Patty, but rather than retain us, he had gotten a partnership agreement online from LawWoosh. So, the agreement had glaring holes in it, most notably, any sort of termination. So for years, they muddled along in business together, where Ned and his clients generated the majority of the revenue, and yet Ned and Patty shared all revenue and profits equally.

Then came one day that Patty up and skipped town. Ned thought that his prayers had been answered! But unfortunately, in doing so, Patty also called the payment vendor they were using, Burns’s Evil Enterprise, and had Burns redirect the commission payments to her personal account.

Ned retained McClure to file suit, and McClure drafted a 75 page complaint, with dozens of exhibits. Patty retained Lionel Hutz as her counsel, and as you would predict, four years of discovery proceedings, conferences, adjournments, conferences, and more adjournments, would ensue.

Ned finally decided to cut McClure loose, and retained our firm to take over. After two years of cleaning up McClure’s mess, we were able to come to a principal settlement agreement with Hutz. Quite simply, he would direct Patty to surrender her shares in the company, and tell Burns to re-re-direct the commissions to Ned.

Sounds simple, right? Except, it wasn’t.

Patty then insisted that she would not return the commissions for a certain list of clients, which she claimed were hers. Ned acknowledged that Barney, Moe, Nelson, and Sideshow Bob were procured by Patty, and could be excluded from the list of clients to be returned, but there was no way that Patty would be entitled to keep Homer, Reverend Lovejoy, Carl Carlson, or Groundskeeper Willie, since they were all clients that Ned at brought in.

I revised the settlement agreement, to reflect these changes, and I called Hutz to let him know I made the changes. He said he would speak to Patty and get back to me. An hour or so later, he called me to tell me they agreed, and would send the document to me for electronic signature by our clients.

When I received it, Hutz had added Homer and Willie back to the excluded list. And he also added Mayor Quimby and Kent Brockman to the excluded list!

I called him back and told him that I caught the change. Hutz then boldly lied to me, and told me that he didn’t make any changes. I literally read him the changes. And he seemed shocked, and then implied that Patty herself, “must have made the changes”. I told him to delete those objectionable names, and re-send it to me.

He re-sent it to me, and now, whole everything else seemed right, he added Apu and Dr. Hibbert to the list of excluded clients! I called him back immediately, and this time, I wasn’t so kind. I railed into him for his bad faith, lying, and openly trying to slip changes by me.

Ultimately, I revised the stipulation agreement, and the parties signed it, and all was well with the world.

After signatures, I ran into Lionel Hutz, and he said to me, “Can’t blame a guy for trying, can you?”  I can, sir. I can.