Quicken Loans affiliate Amrock Inc. is appealing a jury verdict ordering it to pay $706.2 million to analytics company HouseCanary in a legal dispute over a software licensing agreement.
"Amrock will appeal and explore all avenues to ensure justice and sanity are applied to the facts of this case," said CEO Jeff Eisenshtadt in an emailed statement.
Amrock, a Detroit-based settlement services firm that previously operated under the name Title Source Inc., initially sued HouseCanary, a
HouseCanary "made several unkept promises leading Amrock to file a contract claim. However, when we asked the court to intervene, a local attorney and professional plaintiff law firm spun a distorted and twisted counterclaim narrative leading a San Antonio jury to an unconscionable result," Eisenshtadt alleged.
The district court jury in Bexar County, Texas, based its verdict on counterclaims filed by HouseCanary, a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in San Antonio.
HouseCanary alleged that the deal between the two companies fell apart because Amrock asked for multiple changes to contracts and prices without paying promised amounts, and used the technology it had been delivered to secretly replicate HouseCanary's offerings, according to court documents provided by Susman Godfrey LLP, a law firm representing the analytics company. Similar allegations are made in a separate lawsuit HouseCanary filed subsequent to the Texas verdict in U.S. District Court in California. HouseCanary has a corporate office in San Francisco.
"The verdict validates the value of our trade secrets, and it reflects our commitment to protect our technology," HouseCanary CEO Jeremy Sicklick said in a press release.
"The jury's decision defies logic," according to Eisenshtadt. "Amrock never received any working software from HouseCanary, instead receiving wireframes and half-developed apps that were completely unusable by the company. After HouseCanary breached its contract, we ended our relationship with the company and were forced to develop our own tool in-house."
