A Philadelphia judge awarded two former employees of a high-end retailer a combined $2.16 million, finding that verbal agreements they had made with the business’ owner entitled them to payouts after they left their jobs.

The defendants argued that the circumstances under which plaintiffs Jonathan Thorson and Grace Song departed BDDW barred them from receiving percentages of the business’ fair-market valuations that owner Tyler Hays had promised them. The plaintiffs, however, said the prohibitive terms that the defendants cited were not part of the agreement they had reached with Hays.