A Chambers County jury on Thursday cleared Brown & Root Industrial Services and two employees of allegations of trade secret misappropriation and breach of fiduciary duty in a lawsuit that was seeking $258 million in damages.
“They were accused of some pretty serious wrongdoing, with the claim of some very serious damages, including very high punitive damages, which could have potentially been, obviously, very damaging to the company,” said Joe Ahmad of Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, who represented Brown & Root. “So, they feel vindicated.”
CAM Industrial Solutions sued Brown & Root in March 2024, claiming it stole a more than $7 million-a-year maintenance contract on Exxon facilities that CAM previously had.
CAM also sued four former employees who moved to Brown & Root before it got the Exxon contract. Two of the former employees were dropped from the suit before trial.
The jury returned its verdict after deliberating for nearly two days. During the three-week trial, jurors heard from CAM that Brown & Root had lost Exxon as a client due to allegations that former employees shared confidential information.
“They never explained to their employees what was confidential or a trade secret, some of the information was [and] is easy to obtain, and frankly, some of it wasn’t even their information,” Ahmad said. “We felt like they hadn’t taken the measures to protect their information, and it really wasn’t confidential at all.”
Rafe Schaefer, Kate Ergenbright, Mackenzie Ward and Kristen Krebs of Norton Rose Fulbright represented the plaintiffs. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weining Bai, Grace Darrah, Christopher Hackerman, Davis Metzger, Daryl Moore, and Brittainie Zinsmeyer of Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing also represented Brown & Root.
Billy Shepherd of Shepherd Prewett represented the two former employees Darrin Simpson and Jim Soukop.
The case is CAM Industrial Solutions LLC v. Brown & Root Industrial Services LLC, 24DCV0263.