Florida Power & Light Co. owes a real estate agent $1.5 million for breaking a handshake agreement made at a tailgate party, a Palm Beach jury found.

The Juno Beach-based company paid about $75 million for parcels of a ranch in Hendry County but gave no real estate commission to Samuel McRoberts for letting FPL know about the land, according to the June 28 verdict.

Florida law says an oral agreement is a binding contract. But McRoberts' attorneys still had a challenging case to make, as no bystanders heard the conversation between McRoberts and FPL's then-director of project development Jorge “Buck” Martinez before a football game at Florida State University.