A unanimous Tarrant County jury awarded just over $20.2 million to an automotive dealership executive who claimed his business partner breached their contract when she took an opportunity without giving him a chance to participate.
The two-and-a-half-week trial concluded when the jury returned from deliberating for a little over two hours. The jury found Abigail Kampmann liable for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty on Monday. It unanimously rejected all Kampmann’s affirmative defenses, including fraudulent inducement, waiver and the statute of limitations.
Mark Smith and Kampmann went into business together over a decade ago. That venture eventually grew into multiple car dealerships. In their partnership agreement, there was a requirement that if either of them found an opportunity to be in a business venture within their line of business, they had to first present the opportunity to their partner to see if they would like to join.
It was discovered that, in February 2024, Kampmann took a corporate opportunity to invest in real estate related to a car dealership. She did not give Smith a chance to participate.
Bell Nunnally partner Kenneth Meixelsperger represented Smith at trial. He said the defense argued the business opportunity wasn’t one Kampmann was required to offer to Smith.
Meixelsperger said they presented a couple of scenarios to the jury on what to award, depending on what they believed Smith’s participation in the corporate opportunity that he missed out on would be. He said the jury ultimately awarded was one of the middle scenarios. One of the jurors said they had discussions about awarding a higher number but that they ultimately settled on $20,283,090.
“We think it was a fair result for Mr. Smith,” Meixelsperger said.
Before trial, Kampmann’s counterclaims against Smith were dismissed. She had been seeking about $16 million from Smith. She also sought to cancel Smith’s interests in various business ventures based on allegations of common law fraud, statutory fraud under the Texas Securities Act and Texas Business & Commerce Code, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims.
Meixelsperger said Smith was “elated” by the verdict.
“I think he was relieved. This has been a long road. It’s been almost two years since this started, and you know, he’s never been through litigation before, certainly never been through a trial before, and it was a long, stressful experience. And I think he was grateful to the jury for seeing the case the way that he sees it and giving him the opportunity to be made whole,” he said.
Meixelsperger said he expects Kampmann to appeal the verdict.
The pair are still business partners but are working toward untangling their interests so they can go their separate ways.
“Mrs. Kampmann is a successful business owner in many other automobile dealerships that Mr. Smith is not part of, and we have no doubt that she’ll continue to be successful, and I think it’s just time for these two business partners to split,” Meixelsperger said.
He added that this trial and verdict was a step forward for them to split up their business partnership.
Scott Wiehle and Shauna Wright of Kelly Hart represented Kampmann. They did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bell Nunnally partner John F. Guild, senior associate Greg Nieman and associate Catherine B. Baldo, as well as Zachary Farrar and Brant Martin of Wick Phillips Gould & Martin, also served as trial counsel for Smith.
The case is Mark Smith v. Abigail Kampmann and George Kampmann, 342-355189-24.