Did you hear?… AccuFitness prevails in 6+ year legal battle

A drawn-out legal skirmish over royalties between the former owner of Accu-Measure, the manufacturing arm of AccuFitness, and its current owner has turned out in favor of current management.

The judge in the appeal of the case before the Colorado Court of Appeals in Arapahoe Country ruled July 6 that AccuFitness owner MedTech Capital Markets and its owners John Fitzgerald and James Krejci were correct in their assessment of the royalties that were to be paid to former owner John Lollar.

Lollar, the inventor of the technology behind the original Accu-Measure body-fat caliper, had contended in the lawsuit that MedTech owed him royalties not only on the caliper, for which MedTech acquired rights with its purchase of assets in 1999, but on anything that the company ever manufactured or sold. He had charged the new owners with a list of claims, including fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

“The court ruled he sold the calipers, not the company, and he was entitled to (a percent) of all sales of that caliper,” President Matt Chalek told SNEWS®.

The case was headed for a jury trial, but the judge stepped in to issue his own “directed verdict” remanding the case and keeping it from going to a jury trial, Chalek said.

AccuFitness and MedTech had also won the ruling on all counts in the lower court, which was then appealed by Lollar in August 2005. The court awarded $605,500 in costs and fees.

“We won…twice,” Chalek said. “Both times, a shut-out. We’re now regrouping.”