Marking a milestone for the state judiciary, a Harris County jury late Friday night delivered the historic inaugural verdict in the Texas Business Court.
The panel of 12 and two alternates sat through eight days of testimony and deliberated for a little less than five hours before reaching a verdict around 9:20 p.m. The 28-page jury charge contained 20 questions, many multipart, for the jury to work through in the case pitting lawyer Albert Theodore “Ted” Powers against three members of the Berry family.
The verdict in favor of Powers was not unanimous, with at least 10 agreeing to each answer in the charge.
The dispute is rooted in an idea Lawrence Berry had in 2018 to build a world-class crude export terminal outside of Corpus Christi that could receive oil from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale. The product could be stored in Aransas Pass and then loaded onto tanker ships from Harbor Island before being shipped anywhere in the world.
To make the idea a reality, the Berry family needed an investment partner to contribute between $650 million and $700 million to see the project through to fruition.
Powers, a transactional lawyer known for finding investors for large infrastructure projects, was brought in to help secure an investor. Powers filed suit in October 2024 and has maintained that, in 2019, he inked a deal with Lawrence Berry, Dennis Berry and Marty Berry. Dennis Berry died in February 2024 and his widow, Bonnie, is a defendant in this lawsuit.
The deal entitled Powers and his entity, Allied Ports, a 20 percent ownership interest in Lone Star Ports Holdings and his stake would kick in “subject to priority distributions to the Berry defendants of $250 million plus a 10 percent preferred return on the outstanding balance of such amount.”
At that time, the project was valued at $400 million, but in court documents, Powers argues the still-unbuilt project could be worth as much as $1 billion.
On Oct. 22, 2024, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit greenlighting the project. The following day, jurors were told, Mike Hummell, the general counsel of Berry GP Inc., sent an email stating Axis Midstream Holdings, which holds the permitting rights, was jointly owned equally by Lawrence, Marty and Bonnie. Powers’ lawsuit followed.
The jury determined both Marty Berry, who contended he didn’t remember signing the agreement but that the signature resembled his own, and his late brother Dennis Berry both signed the investment agreement involving Powers. The jury also determined Marty and Lawrence had failed to comply with the agreement and that neither failure was excused.
After the verdict was rendered Friday night, Powers told The Lawbook he was “very happy with the result” but wouldn’t be popping “a bottle of champagne tonight,” noting it’s still up to Judge Sofia Adrogué to enter final judgment and decide his requests for declaratory and injunctive relief.
“Our hope is to do a terrific project that will make everybody happy,” he said. “I’m pleased [to continue working with the Berrys] if they are. I’ve been working all along on it and I hope to continue to work on it.”
Roland Garcia of Greenberg Traurig, who represents Powers, told The Lawbook following the verdict that the parties will be filing briefing and proposed final judgments with the court in coming weeks. He is seeking a permanent injunction that would enjoin Marty and Bonnie Berry “from committing wrongful acts and interfering with Mr. Ted Powers’ rights under the investment agreement and his management of the project entities.”
He added that he was “very pleased the jury awarded attorney fees,” down to the penny he requested: $2.4 million for the trial representation and $525,000 in conditional appellate fees.
On Friday, closing arguments started at 10:40 a.m. and the jury was not released to begin deliberations until about 4:40 p.m.
Garcia told jurors during closing arguments Friday to lean on the documents in evidence rather than the testimony of witnesses whose memories of events that occurred over the course of seven-and-a-half years may be hazy.
“The documents, in real time, their memory doesn’t fade,” he said.
Garcia also noted that nowhere in the jury charge will the panel be asked to answer a question that would award his client damages.
“All Mr. Powers wants is to have the parties honor the agreement,” he said.
During rebuttal, Garcia drilled down into that argument again.
“This lawsuit is not about one dollar,” he said. “It’s about the breach by the Berrys and to enforce the agreement and stop the wrongful conduct, not for money. Mr. Powers is not seeking one dollar in this case.”
Bruce Baldree of Gibbs & Bruns, who represents Lawrence Berry, began his closing argument by thanking jurors for their attentiveness throughout the unusual trial that — from voir dire to verdict — took place in five different courtrooms in three different buildings over the course of two weeks.
“At its heart, this case is very simple,” he said. “Mr. Powers has a contract that Mr. Lawrence and his brothers signed.”
Lawrence Berry, while a defendant alongside his brother Marty Berry and the widow of his brother Dennis, Bonnie Berry, is in a unique position because he largely agrees with Powers’ version of events, and he agrees that “there was an effort to freeze Mr. Powers out,” Baldree explained.
“And Lawrence just doesn’t think that’s right,” he said. “My client is not seeking attorney fees; he’s not seeking damages.”
Baldree said, in fact, he’s also not getting any personal benefit from taking the position that the Berrys need to abide by the deal they inked with Powers, as enforcing the agreement would reduce his stake in the project.
“Lawrence is not seeking anything here, he’s not getting any benefit from honoring the deal with Ted,” he said. “His interest is in showing that he is a man of his word.”
After the verdict was issued Friday night, Barrett H. Reasoner of Gibbs & Bruns, who also represents Lawrence Berry, said he was pleased the jury agreed that his client “had the approval of his brothers” to take certain actions, signing various operating agreements for the Lone Star Ports entities. He had warned jurors during opening statements Feb. 10 that they were likely to hear an argument from opposing counsel that his client “went rogue, and tried to take the project for himself in some fashion.” He said the documents will show that’s false.
Sarah Patel Pacheco of Jackson Walker, who represents Bonnie Berry, told jurors that Powers had failed to do the job the Berrys hired him to do: bring an investor in to get the Lone Star Ports project to the finish line.
“It may sound derogatory, but I would just suggest to you he’s all hat, no cattle, and I think his record proves that,” Pacheco said while a caricature of Powers wearing a ten-gallon hat appeared on the PowerPoint presentation.
She argued Powers used his position as a lawyer, advisor and consultant to the Berrys to meddle with the project’s governing documents in a way that benefited only himself.
“So why is Bonnie Berry here? Because she doesn’t believe Ted Powers. She doesn’t believe his convoluted [ownership] structure,” she said.
Pacheco also asked the panel to award about $2.4 million in attorney fees.
Charlie Henke of Henke & Williams, who represents Marty Berry, argued to jurors that Powers filed this lawsuit because “at some point, he got kind of desperate — he sensed he was losing his ability to manipulate the situation.”
Powers, Henke said, “held himself out as the only one who could get this deal done.”
“And he didn’t comply. He didn’t get this done,” he said. “We’re sitting here seven years later and he didn’t get it done.”
Henke asked the jury to award about $1.7 million in damages to Marty Berry because of Powers’ breaches and $2 million in attorney fees.
At 8:25 p.m., the jury buzzed with a question: How many motions did each attorney file in court and appeals?
Jury selection in the case took place Feb. 9.
Powers is also represented by Cara Kelly and Steven Higginbotham of Greenberg Traurig and Jake McClellan, Mary Kate Raffeto and Madeline E. Gay of Beck Redden.
Marvin Berry is also represented by Jett Williams III and Coleman Tucker of Henke & Williams.
Bonnie Berry is also represented by Katherine M. Silver, Austin K. Yancy, Javier Gonzalez, J. Davis LaBarre and Matthew J. Swantner of Jackson Walker.
Lawrence Berry is also represented by Mike Absmeier and Sydney Ballesteros of Gibbs & Bruns.
The case number is 24-BC-11A-0025.