Should I get a refund for code that wasn’t finished or delivered?

The CTO did see it, but both sides contended the other one should write up a report (neither did).

You know what- you are right. I totally fucked up. But besides that, should I at least get the partially done code?

Yes, normally, you/the company should get the partially done code, depending on your agreement with the contractor. But since there was never any formal contract for the project, it'll take court to get anything. Talk to a lawyer to evaluate what your rights are, how you can get the halfdone product with only oral agreement, etc.

Something tells me the coder never even did the work that. Call his bluff (with lawyer's help):

state in writing (with lawyer's office for serious effect) that you're willing to negotiate a resolution but you need to confirm the code exists via escrow arrangement. Ie, the work will be hosted on 3rd party cloud, then a 3rd party expert coder will evaluate it for you to see whether

It is real; make sure he didn't just copy-paste stolen code to trick you

there is actually 3/4 worth of work in there

Can it actually be finished by a competent coder in reasonable amount of time?

Thanks for your response- a 3rd party hosting solution and escrow arrangement might be possible.

I hate to bring in the lawyers as it is just more bills but it might be time.

Even if we can't use it, I feel that if we paid for it then we should get it or get our money back. Since the money isn't happening realistically, then I should at least try for the code we paid for.

Lol why would you found a company with a CTO and then outsource the product building? What the hell were you two doing????

We were going for the whole build when we should have been doing an MVP

+1 from an ex-lawyer who left to found a startup, and who knows that there are many young lawyers who would take on a case like that for equity.

I have a lawyer, and I suppose it is time to get him involved.

No one needs to tell me the obvious lessons I learned- including getting someone else to handle the "business" side. It was supposed to be my CTO who was far more experienced than I was but ultimately made some company killing mistakes.

I am already onto the next start up and I am taking the lessons with me and not repeating the old mistakes. I know a lot more now, learned the hard way but learned none the less

I paid monthly, which means that I paid for a few months of work.

Paying someone monthly implies you're paying for his time. Think retainer. Some lawyers get paid a monthly retainer regardless of whether you use them or not.

This goes for companies that have software support services.

Again without a contract it's ambiguous.