OMAHA, Neb.—A Nebraska judge has awarded nearly $3.3 million to an energy finance company that sued two men who disclosed the company’s proprietary information.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Steven Burns ruled in favor of the American Public Energy Agency, which buys natural gas in bulk on behalf of utilities.
The idea is to save money by pooling purchases to benefit utilities in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Wisconsin, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma.
The judge also awarded one of the agencies’ members, Falls City, $525,000. Attorneys David Houghton and Bob Mullin of Omaha, who represented Falls City, said other members could likely file their own lawsuits.
The agency and Falls City sued J. Gary Stauffer and Evan Ward. Falls City also sued John Harms and the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool, a nonprofit that provided services to the agency.
The judge found that Stauffer and Ward wrongfully distributed company information, financial data and copyrighted material and solicited the company’s customers to try to compete with or eliminate the agency.
In 2006, largely due to the efforts of Stauffer, Harms and Ward, an agreement was entered into to create the Central Plains Energy Project, which competes with the agency, according to court documents.
The judge agreed that the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool conspired with Stauffer and Ward to breach fiduciary duties by supporting the creation of the new natural gas buying company. Ward was working for both the American Public Energy Agency and the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool at the time.
Harms was chief operating officer of the National Public Gas Agency which works closely with the American Public Energy Agency to resell and distribute the natural gas.
Harms knew about Stauffer and Ward’s plans to form a separate competing company. The judge said Harms had a duty to tell his board of directors about the plans, but didn’t. He also made no effort to represent his employers’ interests in the negotiations that led the creation of the Central Plains Energy Project.
A message left Thursday afternoon for an attorney for Harms, Stauffer and Ward wasn’t immediately returned.
Bob Selzer, spokesman for the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool, said they were disappointed by portions of the judge’s ruling.
“NMPP was simply attempting to facilitate opportunities for its members and others for lower cost natural gas supplies,” Selzer said. “We are reviewing the ruling and considering all of our options.”
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