AUSTIN -- Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick testified Thursday that he never read the letter he signed suggesting that harm might come to the reputation of a North Texas fishing tour company operator unless he and a longtime friend were given their money back after the fishing trip they had arranged in 2006 was canceled because of weather.

The testimony came during an often acrimonious 90-minute deposition in Dallas as a part of lawsuit and countersuit over whether Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer should have their deposit refunded or whether they should accept an offer to have the trip to South America rescheduled.

Several times during the session, a video of which was made available to the Star-Telegram, Craddick declined to answer questions that his lawyer said were inappropriate. And the session ended abruptly when Craddick and his lawyer, Tom Thomas, walked out while accusing the opposing lawyer of fishing for political dirt.

"We're done, on the basis of your harassing the witness," Thomas said.

Kevin Buchanan, the lawyer for Phil Marsteller, who owns Amazon Tours of Coppell, appeared to be taken aback. "Did I offend you here today?" he asked Craddick.

"I don't know," the speaker replied.

Buchanan countered: "He's taking you out of here because he said I was mean to you. Was I being mean to you?"

The back-and-forth ending came after Buchanan had tried to pin Craddick down on what efforts he had taken to have the trip rescheduled after flooding in South America scuttled the trip that Messer and the Republican speaker had planned for February 2006. Marsteller had offered an alternate date for November of that year, but Craddick said that would conflict with the Texas House elections.

The tour company typically does not offer refunds because of fixed costs, Buchanan said later, but instead attempts to reschedule when forces beyond the company's control force the cancellation of fishing excursions.

Amazon Tours is accusing Craddick and Messer, who had planned to room together on the trip, of exerting political influence to obtain a refund to which they were not entitled. The two men, who have been friends for three decades, contend in their countersuit that they are entitled to the refund because the company didn't deliver the promised vacation.

In his deposition, Craddick acknowledged that he had no direct contact with Marsteller or anyone else from the tour company about whether the trip could be rescheduled. He said that e-mail messages about it to staff members at his Capitol office were never brought to his attention.

At the crux of the dispute is a March 2007 letter from Craddick and Messer, written on the stationery of Messer's lobbying firm, that states, "We hereby make final demand that a full refund in the amount we paid be made to each of us in order to avoid legal action, or embarrassment to your reputation."

The letter is signed by Messer and "Speaker Tom Craddick."

Buchanan asked Craddick if he routinely uses his political title in private or business-related correspondence. Craddick did not dispute that he had signed the letter, but had no recollection of signing it or ever reading it.

"I didn't even notice it when I did it," he said. "I just did it."

Asked what embarrassment might come to Marsteller if he refused to provide the refund, Craddick shrugged and said he had not contemplated such a circumstance.

The video was made available by Buchanan over the objections of Craddick and his lawyer, who said in a court filing that it would probably be used to undermine the speaker politically.