 A few months earlier, the two had signed a statement cancelling all debts that Beaumarchais owed Duverney (about 75,000 pounds), and granting Beaumarchais the modest sum of 15,000 pounds.Duverney's sole heir, Count de la Blache, took Beaumarchais to court, claiming the signed statement was a forgery.Although the 1772 verdict favoured Beaumarchais, it was overturned on appeal the following year by a judge, a magistrate named Goezman, whom Beaumarchais tried in vain to bribe.