A Los Angeles jury has found QVC Home Shopping Network spokesperson Bruce Makowsky liable for more than $2.3 million in damages for breach of an oral partnership agreement and breach of fiduciary duty. judgment has been entered.
Makowsky has sold more than $10 million in “infotainment” --branded iPad and iPhone accessories, including docking stations and “Powerbanks,” through the QVC Home Shopping Network. The jury found that Makowsky breached a prior oral partnership agreement with the plaintiff, Jeff Cherun, in which the two men agreed to be 50/50 partners in the Infotainment business.
Bruce Makowsky is best known for a popular line of women’s handbags sold on QVC, among other places, under the brands “B. Makowsky” and “Kathy Van Zeeland.” Makowsky testified at trial that he sold that business to the Chinese conglomerate Li & Fung in 2008 for nearly $400 million dollars.
The jury’s award includes nearly $1.8 million in punitive damages. The jury found by “clear and convincing” evidence that Makowsky had acted with “malice, oppression or fraud” in his business dealings with the plaintiff, Jeff Cherun.
Cherun was represented by Geoffrey A. Neri of Ethan Brown Law and Steven Gebelin of Miller Barondess, LLP.
