Over a year after the Texas Business Court was established, its first couple of jury trials are underway. The first is still going in Houston, and the second started in Dallas today.
One hurdle the court has had to clear is finding a location for the jury trials since it does not have designated courtrooms. Judge Andrea Bouressa worked with Dallas County to reserve the Merrill Hartman Courtroom for the three-day trial.
The morning started with jury selection of 80 people. Several were excused due to not understanding or speaking English, travel or childcare issues, and one knew the defendant. Three men and nine women were selected as the 12-member panel.
Solo practitioner Marilyn Lahr is representing Esteban Quintero and ATS Concrete Services, which filed suit against Urban Infraconstruction and Anup Tamrakar, alleging that Quintero was a member of Urban based on an oral agreement.
Urban is a construction company that works on highway projects, and ATS is a company that uses saws on concrete.
Quintero has brought breach of contract and fiduciary duty and fraud claims against Urban and Tamrakar.
During jury selection, Timothy Rothberg of Rothberg Shurtleff Dang asked the prospective jurors if they had heard of the phrase “stories may change, the documents remain the same.”
“We’re going to show you the documents,” Lahr said to the jury.
Lahr explained to the jury the men’s relationship grew when they went to work in Lubbock over a decade ago. Since they only knew each other there, their friendship grew close. Things changed with the formation of ATS. Quintero claims that he was a managing member of the company but did not have access to everything.
Lahr told the jury to pay close attention.
“We’re going to show you a number of documents about the operations, and we ask you to keep an open mind,” Lahr said. “Look at those when you get into the jury room, make your assessment of what is right in this case according to what the judge charges your instructions of what to consider in reaching your conclusions.”
Rothberg began his opening statement by telling the jury to “hold us to what we say.”
He displayed a timeline to the jury showing Quintero started at Urban in 2015, ATS was founded in August 2023 as a subsidiary and then Quintero resigned in 2025.
Rotherberg called Quintero an Urban employee who was heavily compensated for his work. Quintero was a general superintendent.
Quintero was the first to take the witness stand Tuesday afternoon.
He talked about how he worked hard doing work for both Urban and ATS and was frustrated with Tamrakar.
Quintero will return to the stand tomorrow morning.
William Shurtleff of Rothberg Shurtleff Dang is also representing Tamrakar.
The case is Esteban Quintero, et al. v. Urban Infraconstruction, et al., 25-BC01A-0022.