Lawyers ask to cancel court hearing in Hsieh suit

Attorneys for Tony Hsieh’s longtime friend and financial manager filed court papers Friday withdrawing motions that contained allegations that Hsieh’s brother bought him drugs and “plied” him with alcohol in the months before his death.

But lawyers for Tony Lee did not retract the allegations regarding Hsieh’s brother and reserved the right to “renew any arguments of law or fact” from the prior allegations in future court proceedings.

The notice filed Friday also requested that a Nov. 15 hearing be canceled.

In April, Lee sued his friend’s estate, seeking nearly $7 million from what the suit claimed was a breached contract.

The allegations were made in response to filings from September, in which Hsieh’s lawyers claimed the former Zappos CEO spent his final years malnourished, barely sleeping and hallucinating from ketamine and nitrous oxide use.

Lee’s lawyers argued in the October filing that the prior allegations were “clearly filed at the direction of Andrew Hsieh,” Tony Hsieh’s brother, and were meant to “seek to inject salacious allegations into the litigation.”

Lawyers for the Hsieh family have not addressed the allegations against Andrew Hsieh in subsequent court filings.

On Monday, lawyers for Tony Hsieh’s family filed court documents demanding Lee return more than $625,000 they claimed Lee received from Hsieh.

Tony Hsieh died Nov. 27 at age 46 from injuries suffered in a Connecticut house fire and did not leave a will. His father, Richard, and Andrew Hsieh are overseeing the estate of the former Zappos boss.

Lawyers for Hsieh’s family and Lee’s attorneys could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Correction: This story has been corrected to indicate that attorneys for Tony Lee have withdrawn court documents, rather than allegations about Tony Hsieh’s brother.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.