McDermott Will & Emery extended an August trial winning streak on Aug. 10, persuading a state court jury in Texas to knock out fraud and breach of contract claims against Celanese Corp. related to a $1.3 billion methanol contract.
In the Celanese case, a Harris County jury concluded that the company hadn’t breached its 10-year, $1.3 billion contract to purchase methanol from Southern Chemical Corp. (SCC), determining that the contract should remain in effect until it’s set to expire in 2015. The jury rejected claims by SCC and its lawyers at Ware, Jackson, Lee & Chambers that Celanese had violated the terms of the agreement by re-selling Southern’s methanol to other chemical companies for up to triple the contract price.
