Settlement reached in legal battle for novel royalties

September 16, 2016 9:51 PM

Jennifer Pedroza has reached a settlement with Amanda Hayward, in their battle for royalties from the erotic "Fifty Shades of Grey" novels.

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After a lengthy battle over royalties from the erotic "Fifty Shades of Grey" novels, the Texas woman who cried foul, has reached a settlement with her former business partner.

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According to their lawyers, no monetary figures were announced in the settlement between the Fort Worth schoolteacher, Jennifer Pedroza and Amanda Hayward of Australia.

According to reports, the women were among the original partners in The Writers Coffee Shop, an online community which went on to become a small independent publisher of ebooks and originally published the "Fifty Shades" trilogy in 2011 as an e-book and print-on-demand book.

Following Pedroza's allegations in 2015 that she had been cheated out of royalties, a judge in Fort Worth ordered Hayward to set aside $10 million for Pedroza after a Fort Worth jury concluded in February 2015 that she was defrauded out of her fair share of the royalties.

Mike Farris, an attorney for Pedroza said, "I believe everyone is pleased."

"It's nice to have the whole thing resolved. The settlement puts an end to the disagreements they had," said David Keltner, a Texas-based attorney for Hayward.

The rights for the E.L. James authored "Fifty Shades" books, were sold for over $40 million to Random House, a deal which led to the sale of more than 100 million copies around the world.

In 2015, the Fort Worth jury agreed with Pedroza's lawyers who argued that she was cheated out of her share of the money after Hayward fraudulently presented a restructuring agreement for the sale to Random House.

Texas District Court Judge Susan McCoy, reportedly ordered that the $10 million be set aside while further investigations into the sale were underway in a bid to find out the exact amount owed to Pedroza, while satisfying the jury verdict.

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A final judgment early this year finally entitled Pedroza to $11.6 million. However, Hayward appealed the rulings.

According to Farris, the settlement talks began months ago and seeing as a settlement has been reached, McCoy signed an order for the previous judgement to be set aside in light of the settlement reached.