© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Kerry Curry
HOUSTON — (Oct. 1) — Bracewell & Giuliani won a dismissal of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit a week before trial after a judge ruled that plaintiff Vertical North America had no jurisdiction in the case against Vopak Terminal Deer Park Inc.
Vertical North America, an ethanol trading company, sought more than $30 million in actual damages against Vopak, the owner and operator of bulk liquid terminals. Vertical, which also sought punitive damages, claimed Vopak fraudulently induced it into entering into an agreement to store ethanol at Vopak’s terminal on the Houston Ship Channel, and that Vopak breached that agreement.
Judge Erin Lunceford of the 61st District Court of Harris County dismissed the case this week.
“We ultimately realized that the plaintiff was not in fact the entity that … was able to bring the claims in the lawsuit,” said Bracewell Partner Phillip L. Sampson, Jr. “The plaintiffs were actually the wrong party.”
Partner Christopher L. Dodson also helped lead the defense.
The original agreement for the ethanol storage was between Vertical North America (VNA), which was owned by a parent company, Vertical U.K., he said. The parent company, Vertical U.K., sold VNA assets to another entity but retained the claims against Vopak. However, in the lawsuit, VNA, not Vertical U.K. filed the case.
Sampson said they don’t know if Vertical will appeal or perhaps seek to re-file the case.
“There may be serious limitation issues with trying to fix the problem,” Sampson said, declining to be more specific.
Houston-based Bracewell associates William A. Moss, Ryan C. Myers and Carlton D. Wilde, III also worked on the case with Scott Grossman, the general counsel and corporate secretary of Vopak.
Vertical was represented by Charles Kelley, a partner in Mayer Brown’s Houston office.
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