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A Prince George's County Circuit Court judge dismissed claims of fraud in a lawsuit in which a reality television chef demanded a National Harbor contractor pay him more than $17 million for income lost after a botched business deal.

The case stems from a petition filed in December, when Baltimore-based chef Timothy Dean, a contestant on the Bravo network show "Top Chef," sued Ron Adolph, a National Harbor minority-business consultant, claiming Adolph tried to monopolize a restaurant that would have been owned jointly by the two and then reneged on the development deal, causing the project to fall through.

The judgment, handed down Aug. 20 by Judge Maureen M. Lamasney, cleared Adolph of the lawsuit's fraud claims. Adolph will still be held accountable for Dean's allegations in the same suit of a breach of contract, a claim Adolph unsuccessfully tried to have dismissed. Unless an out-of-court settlement is reached, the breach-of-contract claim will head to a civil trial in the county's circuit court.

While Lamasney struck down the fraud claim, she allowed it to be resubmitted if the case goes to trial and gave Adolph 30 days to hand over financial records, e-mails and correspondence he made last fall when the deal fell through. No trial date has been scheduled for the case.

Dean's attorney, Jim Bell, contends that the documents would show Adolph never had the $1.4 million he pledged to Dean to open the restaurant in 2009.

"Those documents will show whether or not Adolph had $1.4 million and what other individuals or businesses interfered with the contract," Bell said.

Adolph's publicist, Sandra Wills Hannon, said she is satisfied with the judge's dismissal of the fraud claims.

"Mr. Adolph is looking forward to the closure of this matter when the alleged breach of contract claim, which is also without any merit, is either dismissed or successfully defended against at trial."

In court documents filed Dec. 22, Dean claimed he and Adolph agreed to partner to open the Timothy Dean Bistro at National Harbor in Oxon Hill in spring 2008. Adolph is the CEO of The TAC Cos., an Oxon Hill-based consulting company that provides minority business enterprises services to National Harbor's developer, the Peterson Cos.

Bell argued in court last week that Adolph agreed to pay $1.4 million to open the restaurant in exchange for 47 percent ownership of the business. Adolph submitted affidavits to the Prince George's Liquor Control Board in November 2009 stating that he had that percent of ownership in the restaurant.

In January, Adolph's attorneys fired back with a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that Adolph was never obligated to provide funding for the project because the two sides never reached a definitive agreement on the structure of the project. According to the motion, Adolph sent four drafts of the agreement to Dean throughout 2008, but he rejected them all. With no agreement reached by late 2008, Adolph halted payments to a contractor working in the restaurant.

Still, Bell contends that Dean and Adolph had reached an agreement because Adolph had spent upward of $700,000 in the project but stalled on the remaining investment.

"Mr. Dean wouldn't have agreed to give [up] 47 percent of his company if Adolph didn't agree to pay $1.4 million," Bell said.

jgarner@gazette.net