Judge Upholds Verdict, Enhances Damages Against NL Industries, Officers
Submitted by: Androvett Legal Media & Marketing
2009-10-21 00:02:41
DALLAS - A Dallas County state district court judge has issued a final order that upholds a July 2009 jury verdict totaling more than $182.5 million in damages and interest against a subsidiary of Dallas-based NL Industries Inc.
Dallas, TX (OPENPRESS) October 21, 2009 -- A Dallas County state district court judge has issued a final order that upholds a July 2009 jury verdict totaling more than $182.5 million in damages and interest against a subsidiary of Dallas-based NL Industries Inc.
Defendants in the case include Dallas-based NL Industries, its subsidiary NL Environmental Management Services Inc. (NL EMS), and Dallas businessman Harold Simmons, who controls NL Industries.
The dispute stems from a 1998 investment in NL EMS by plaintiffs Efficasey Environmental LLC, Highland Environmental Management LLC, and Industrial Recovery Capital Holdings Company. The plaintiffs became minority shareholders and ran the company, which managed the cleanup of NL Industries' environmental liabilities. However, when the plaintiffs exercised their contractual right to sell their stock back to NL Industries in 2005, NL Industries offered only a small fraction of the stock's true value.
The Final Judgment order, released Friday, Oct. 16, 2009, affirms the jury's July 2009 verdict that NL Industries and several of its officers improperly drained NL EMS assets in the months leading up to the minority shareholders' sale of stock back to the company. The plaintiffs also showed that defendants operated in bad faith by artificially reducing the value of the assets that were left in the company.
Jurors found NL Industries liable for breaching its fiduciary duty to the plaintiffs, in addition to finding Mr. Simmons and two other executives liable for draining assets from the company and improperly calculating the value of the plaintiffs' stock.
"The plaintiffs invested a great deal of time and money in this firm. They had high hopes, but also faith that the defendants would act in a straightforward manner," says Steve Susman of Susman Godfrey, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. "This final judgment is an important step for these investors to achieve some justice."
Believed to be one the largest verdicts in Texas in 2009, the final judgment includes $33.7 million in actual damages and $140 million in punitive damages against NL Industries, as well as an additional $5 million in punitive damages against NL Industries' general counsel. The court also awarded $3.8 million in prejudgment interest on the actual damages. The final judgment includes $28 million in actual damages against NL EMS, however any recovery of this amount will be offset by the amount of actual damages recovered from the NL Industries judgment. Additionally, the final judgment requires the defendants to pay court costs and post-verdict interest.
"The jurors saw the case for what it was," says plaintiffs' co-counsel Tom Melsheimer, Managing Principal of the Dallas office of Fish & Richardson, P.C. "The defendants made basic promises that they did not fulfill and took steps to devalue the stock of this company for their own selfish reasons."
Plaintiffs Efficasey Environmental and Industrial Recovery Capital Holdings Company were represented by Mr. Susman from Susman Godfrey's Houston and New York offices, and fellow firm attorneys Steve Morrissey (Los Angeles), Katherine Treistman (Houston) and Stephen Shackelford Jr. (Dallas).
Plaintiff Highland Environmental Management was represented by attorneys in Fish & Richardson's Dallas office, including Mr. Melsheimer, M. Brett Johnson, Renee Skinner and Scott Thomas.
For more information, contact Robert Tharp at 800-559-4534 (office), 214-458-4007(cell) or robert@androvett.com.
Press Keywords: Fish & Richardson, attorney Tom Melsheimer, NL Industires, Texas law firm, Dallas lawyer, white collar attorney, Steve Susman, Susman Godfrey