A Dallas County jury unanimously awarded more than $7.7 million to an Arlington-based company last week, finding a business partner in breach of contract after deliberating for about two and a half hours.
MCR Oil Tools, founded by Michael Robertson in Arlington, designs, manufactures and distributes non-explosive pipe cutting and perforating tools across the globe for use in the oil and gas industry.
MCR Oil Tools had a 20-year business relationship with Expro Holdings, one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. Expro was founded in Scotland but is now headquartered in Houston.
The relationship between the companies ended in 2023 when Expro chose not to renew its licensing agreement.
MCR Oil Tools claimed Expro refused to comply with its post-contractual obligations under the license agreement and misappropriated MCR’s trade secrets.
The seven-day jury trial in Judge Bridgett Whitmore’s courtroom concluded Wednesday with the jury finding Expro failed to comply with the license agreement and awarded $7,767,157 in damages.
According to court filings, Expro argued that it had licensed MCR tools that MCR falsely represented were non-explosive. The jury disagreed.
The jury also found MCR did not assert its trade secret misappropriation claim in bad faith. Nor did Expro misappropriate a trade secret owned by MCR.
MCR did not fail to comply with the license agreement, the jury found.
Benjamin Riemer, Meredith Palmer and Monica Dike of Bell Nunnally represented MCR Oil Tools.
Steven Lockhart, Stephanie McPhail, Terrell Miller and Kelsey Imam of Foley & Lardner represented Expro Holdings. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The case number is DC-24-00865.