Recently, trial teams from Gibbs & Bruns convinced two Harris County juries to return complete defense wins for two of its clients, one that was facing as much as $13.7 million in liability and another that was fighting claims seeking more than $20 million in damages.
On May 12, the firm secured a take-nothing defense verdict for Kinder Morgan and a subsidiary in a breach of contract case where the plaintiff was seeking more than $20 million. Two days later, a jury in the second trial rejected a plaintiff’s attempt to recoup as much as $13.7 million in alleged damages from the firm’s frac sand client, Hi-Crush, after two weeks of trial.
Gibbs & Bruns co-managing partner, Mike Absmeier, told The Texas Lawbook on Tuesday he was “thrilled” with the firm’s recent jury successes.
“These verdicts reflect our firm’s commitment to delivering exceptional service and results for our clients,” he said. “In both cases, our lawyers applied their deep expertise, creative thinking and tireless advocacy to secure favorable verdicts for our valued clients. We are immensely proud of our trial teams’ hard work and the trust our clients place in us.”
Universal Pressure Pumping, now known as Nextier Completion Solutions, filed suit against Hi-Crush in Harris County district court in June 2022, seeking between $8.8 million and $13.7 million in damages for an alleged breach of contract. According to court documents, Nextier and Hi-Crush entered into a 12-month contract in May 2021 under which Hi-Crush was to supply frac sand to Nextier.
The contract was to run through April 2022, and earlier that year, the parties attempted to reach an agreement to extend the contract but negotiations failed.
When Nextier sued Hi-Crush, it alleged that a series of emails exchanged between representatives for the companies on Feb. 1, 2022, constituted a binding amended contract that would have meant Nextier was going to receive 550,000 tons of frac sand through the end of 2022.
In its defense of the claims, Hi-Crush argued the emails did not constitute an amended contract, and that even if the emails could be considered a binding deal, Hi-Crush said it did not breach it.
The jury found Hi-Crush had “ratified” an amended agreement, that the emails did not form a new contract and that Hi-Crush had not breached the amended agreement.
In the other lawsuit, Gibbs & Bruns clients Kinder Morgan and its subsidiary Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline were accused by a Russian-funded startup, American Ethane Company, of breaching a contract. AEC was seeking more than $20 million in damages.
AEC, funded by Russian billionaires Roman Abramovich, Alexander Abramov and others, sued Kinder Morgan and UMTP in March 2020, seeking the return of $6.9 million it paid UMTP under a 2014 term sheet. AEC tacked on claims for fraud, fraudulent inducement and unjust enrichment and was seeking exemplary damages and attorney fees.
According to court documents, UMTP and AEC began discussions in 2014 when AEC was trying to develop a source of ethane for export to foreign markets and wanted UMTP to continue its preliminary development of a potential pipeline that could have been the source AEC was looking for.
But UMTP, which had determined that there was low shipper interest in the pipeline project, was considering suspending the development work in 2014.
Pursuant to the term sheet, UMTP agreed to continue its preliminary development of the pipeline for three months if AEC was willing to split the $13.8 million bill that would accrue during that time period.
At the same time, the parties couldn’t reach an agreement regarding AEC subscribing for capacity on the pipeline, and UMTP was also not satisfied with the credit support AEC could offer to prove its creditworthiness.
Because of those issues, negotiations under the term sheet were terminated in September 2014, and the pipeline project was never built.
A jury was empaneled and began hearing testimony May 1, and after AEC rested its case, UMTP and Kinder Morgan got the court to grant their motion for a directed verdict on AEC’s equitable claims.
The jury got to decide the breach of contract and fraud claims, and on May 12 returned a complete defense verdict in favor of Kinder Morgan and UMTP.
Harris County District Judge Dawn Rogers presided over the Kinder Morgan case, and Harris County Judge Sonya L. Aston presided over the Hi-Crush case.
Plaintiffs’ counsel in both cases did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.
Hi-Crush was represented by Brian T. Ross, Jorge Gutierrez, Ross MacDonald and Conor McEvily of Gibbs & Bruns LLP.
Nextier was represented by Jason McManis, John Zavitsanos, Foster Johnson, Thomas Frashier, Davis Metzger, and Emily Adler of Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, PLLC.
Kinder Morgan and Utica are represented by Mike Absmeier, Bruce Baldree and Pete McDonald of Gibbs & Bruns.
American Ethane Company is represented by James C. Sabalos, Daniel Davillier and Jonathan Lewis of Davallier Law Group.
The cases are Nextier Completion Solutions v. Hi-Crush Permian Sand, case number 2022-34844, and American Ethane Company v. Utica Marcellus Texas Pipeline et al., case number 2020-14072, in Harris County District Court.