A Multi-Million-Dollar Legal Proceeding Over "Casual Games" That's a Lot of MumboJumbo

Back in January '10, Dallas-based MumboJumbo -- distributors of Jewel Quest and Bejeweled 2 and a whole bunch of other familiar time-wasters -- was awarded upwards of $4.6 million in actual damages by a Dallas County jury. Long story short: In 2006, MumboJumbo entered into an agreement with Seattle-based PopCap Games, which said that MumboJumbo would "produce, distribute and sell certain PopCap games in North America," according to a release last year. But a local jury agreed with MumboJumbo's claims that PopCap "breached the contract when it went behind MumboJumbo's back and decided to market and sell its games on its own."

So. Rumor is PopCap's about to be acquired by someone -- maybe Electronic Arts -- for as much as $1 billion. But MumboJumbo still hasn't been paid the $7.3 million total it was awarded when the Dallas jury found PopCap guilty of fraud and breach of contract. (The additional money came in February '10 under the category of legal fees.) That's because PopCap's appealing the verdict ... and MumboJumbo's asked for a new trial, because it doesn't believe it got enough money in the jury's verdict to begin with and wants another chance to prove how hard it got screwed by PopCap.

A release just landed in the inbox in which Martin Rose of Rose•Walker, who's repping MumboJumbo, says he wants to know more about the sale. And he wants to make sure PopCap pays at least what the jury says his client is owed: "We're hearing all sorts of talk about a sale or IPO of PopCap -- and that's great -- but the company has a responsibility to pay its debts. We just want to do everything we can to make sure that what the jury and the court called for is carried out. Depending on the terms of the reported sale, there may be no assets left in PopCap to satisfy the full judgment, including attorney fees."

I suggest they settle it with a game of Luxor.