HOUSTON - Two of AZA’s unanimous jury verdicts on behalf of Houston-based energy companies were named by TopVerdict.com among the Top 50 Verdicts in Texas in 2023.
AZA frequently makes top verdict lists in Texas and nationally. The full list for 2023 is available here: Top 50 Verdicts in Texas in 2023 - TopVerdict.com.
The 15th-largest verdict in the state in 2023 was a $41.8 million win from a South Texas jury in an oil and gas trespass case against Energy Transfer. The McMullen County jury found AZA client SilverBow Resources and Hogan Thompson’s client El Dorado Gas & Oil were damaged by Energy Transfer’s trespass.
The jury found that Energy Transfer interfered with the exploration and production rights of the two smaller energy companies with injections of natural gas processing waste byproducts in the subsurface. The case was covered by Law360 and Texas Lawyer.
Also on the top 50 list was a Fort Bend County jury verdict of $9 million against prominent Odessa businessman Toby Eoff and others involved in a conspiracy against DistributionNOW (DNOW), a leading global supplier of energy and industrial products and services.
That jury found that Mr. Eoff willfully and maliciously conspired with other former employees of DNOW to steal the energy sector giant’s trade secrets. The verdict included a finding that Mr. Eoff breached his fiduciary duty to DNOW when he conspired with the others to cripple Odessa Pumps, a business his family had started 40 years ago and subsequently sold to DNOW, a leading global supplier of energy and industrial products.
Lead lawyer AZA co-founder John Zavitsanos tried the DNOW case with AZA partner Jason McManis and associates Louis Liao and Michael Gorrell. Co-counsel included S. Scott West and Maddison M. West from The West Law Firm, Christopher E. Moore from Ogletree Deakins and attorney Richard L. Tate. The verdict was covered by Law360 and Texas Lawyer and was the 27th-largest Texas verdict for last year. The case is DNOW LLP v. Toby Eoff et al., case number 22-DCV-294327 in Fort Bend County’s 434th District Court.
SilverBow, an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Houston, was represented by AZA partners Todd Mensing, Taylor Freeman, Jane Robinson and Cameron Byrd and associates Harrison Scheer, Hilary Greene and Thomas Cooke. The case is SilverBow Resources Operating LLC and El Dorado Gas & Oil, Inc. v. ETC Field Services, LLC et al. The case number is M-14-0029-CV-C in the McMullen County 343rd District Court.
AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, healthcare, intellectual property and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized by Chambers USA 2023 as among the best in Texas in commercial law and intellectual property; has been listed by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 12 years; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.