A $98 million verdict secured by Boyd, Powers & Williamson has been inducted into the VerdictSearch Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame.
In reaching the December 2017 verdict, a Dallas County jury found that BBVA Compass Bank and one of its executives had committed fraud during loan renewal and modification negotiations with a developer of three luxury subdivisions in northeast Tarrant County following the 2008 financial crisis. Lead trial attorney Derrick Boyd presented evidence, including email correspondence, showing that the bank executive had been actively working to sell the properties while simultaneously promising developer David Bagwell that the bank was not selling the loans and intended to extend his loan. A $96.2 million final judgment in the case in 2018 preserved all but one portion of the verdict and added pre- and post-verdict interest.
In addition to Mr. Boyd, the trial team included Kristy Campbell and Matt Meyer of Boyd, Powers & Williamson of Decatur, Texas; appellate counsel Jeffrey Levinger of Levinger PC of Dallas; and attorney Jeffrey T. Hall of Dallas. Two related entities intervened in the lawsuit and were represented by Peyton Healey of Powers Taylor LLP of Dallas.
In addition to the VerdictSearch Hall of Fame honor, Mr. Boyd and the Boyd, Powers & Williamson trial team have earned three multimillion-dollar jury verdicts in litigation involving complex business claims in 2019 alone. In January 2019, a Wise County jury returned a combined $4.5 million verdict on behalf of a North Texas gas station and convenience store that had suffered storm damage, finding Argonaut Great Central Insurance Co., its claims adjuster Vericlaim Inc., and SF Construction liable for fraud, deceptive trade practices, and failing to pay a claim in a timely manner.
The following month – in February 2019 – a Travis County jury returned a $1.7 million verdict against Ohio-based financial services firm Equity Trust Co., finding that the firm had knowingly and substantially aided a notorious Ponzi scheme operated by convicted fraudster Robert Langguth. Between 2004 and 2009, Mr. Langguth cheated approximately 125 investors in the Austin area. The jury found that Equity Trust substantially aided and assisted Mr. Langguth’s scheme and could have brought an end to it sooner. Boyd, Powers & Williamson has represented approximately forty victims taken advantage of by the scheme.
In May 2019, a Tarrant County jury returned a multimillion-dollar verdict against CommTech Sales LLC of Plano in a trade dress and trade secrets lawsuit on behalf of Fort Worth-based XIP LLC. In June 2019, a Tarrant County judge entered a $26.5 final judgment for XIP. Jurors agreed that CommTech and Mr. McGraw unlawfully used XIP’s proprietary generator interface technology in a line of competing products and had misappropriated XIP’s trademark and engaged in unfair competition, trademark infringement, trade dress infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets.
