Case File: ES3 Minerals, LLC v. Kreines, Ryan, LMP, et al.
Court: Texas Business Court, Third Division (Austin)
Trial Dates: February 24 – March 9, 2026
Verdict: March 13, 2026, unanimous 12-person jury
Total Award: Approximately $49 million — $40 million for the value of the misappropriated trade secrets, plus $9 million in exemplary (punitive) damages
Defendants: Nicholas “Nick” Kreines, David Ryan, Jettie Rangel (Jennings), and their new company, Liberty Mineral Partners (LMP)
Status: Judgment has been appealed to Texas’s 15th Court of Appeals
Three executives once trusted enough to run the inner workings of an Austin mineral rights company decided to walk out the door with the playbook and start their own competing firm. A jury took less than two weeks of trial to decide exactly what that playbook was worth — and the number came to roughly $49 million.
The case, ES3 Minerals, LLC v. Kreines, Ryan, LMP, et al., also carries a distinction beyond its size: it was the very first jury trial held in the Austin division of Texas’s newly created Business Court, a specialized court system designed specifically to handle complex commercial disputes.
What ES3 Says Happened
ES3 Minerals, LLC is an Austin-based company that buys, sells, and advises on mineral and royalty rights across Texas. According to the lawsuit, the company spent years building proprietary systems, software, and business methods to manage those transactions — the kind of internal infrastructure that gave ES3 its competitive edge in a specialized, relationship-driven industry.
ES3 alleged that three of its own former senior employees, Nicholas Kreines, David Ryan, and Jettie Rangel (also known as Jennings), took that infrastructure with them when they left. According to the complaint, the trio didn’t just walk away with general industry knowledge — they allegedly copied ES3’s proprietary software, took lists of the company’s buyers, and used that stolen material to launch a direct competitor, Liberty Mineral Partners (LMP).
ES3’s lawsuit brought four separate legal claims against the defendants:
Theft of trade secrets Breach of fiduciary duty Breach of contract Fraudulent transfer
According to court filings, the new venture didn’t take long to turn a profit. ES3 claimed that in just eight months of operation, the trio generated roughly $20 million in revenue using the systems and customer information the company says they took.
What the Jury Found
After a trial that ran from late February into early March 2026, a 12-person jury reached a unanimous verdict on every count. Jurors found that Kreines, Ryan, and Rangel had acted in concert to misappropriate ES3’s buyer information, proprietary trade secrets, and sales techniques — and that the misappropriation was willful and malicious, a finding that opened the door to punitive damages on top of the base award.
On the question of value, the jury didn’t hedge. It placed the worth of ES3’s integrated trade secret system at more than $40 million, a figure supported at trial by expert testimony from a Texas economist retained to analyze the systems’ financial value to the company. On top of that base figure, the jury added $9 million in exemplary damages, bringing the combined total to approximately $49 million.
What the People Involved Had to Say
ES3’s founder, Trey Stanton, framed the case as a matter of defending the integrity of a company he built from the ground up:
“At its core, this case was about protecting the systems, technology and business we’ve built at ES3. From the beginning, my goal has been to build a generational company grounded in integrity and accountability. When the work and values behind that are challenged, we believe it’s important to stand up and defend them.”
ES3’s lead trial counsel, Michael Marin, described the verdict as a clear signal to employers and employees alike about how Texas courts will treat this kind of conduct:
“This verdict sends a clear message that Texas courts and Texas juries will hold employees accountable when they misappropriate their employer’s most valuable assets.”
Following the verdict, Stanton said the company’s attention has already shifted away from the courtroom and back toward its core operations, telling reporters that the focus now is on continuing to grow the business and serve the mineral owners ES3 works with.
Why the Setting of This Case Matters
Beyond the dollar figure, this verdict carries extra weight because of where it happened. Texas’s Business Court is a relatively new specialized court system, created specifically to give complex commercial disputes a dedicated forum with judges experienced in business litigation, rather than funneling these cases through general civil dockets. The ES3 case was the very first jury trial the Austin division of that court had ever held.
The case also moved unusually fast for commercial litigation of this scale. According to court records, the dispute went from initial filing to a full jury verdict in under 15 months — a pace that reflects part of what the Business Court system was specifically designed to achieve: resolving complicated, high-value commercial disputes without the yearslong delays that often accompany similar cases in traditional civil courts.
What Happens Next
A jury verdict of this size doesn’t automatically become a final, collectible judgment. According to ES3, the case has now moved into post-trial proceedings, where the court will need to formally enter a final judgment and consider whether additional remedies, including a potential injunction against the defendants, are warranted.
The defendants, for their part, have already filed an appeal. Court records show the judgment was appealed to Texas’s 15th Court of Appeals, meaning the $49 million figure — like many large jury verdicts before it — isn’t necessarily the final word. Appellate courts can uphold, reduce, or in some cases send cases back for retrial, so this case’s ultimate outcome likely won’t be settled for some time yet.
The Bigger Picture
For businesses that rely heavily on proprietary systems, client relationships, and internal processes built up over years, this case is already being discussed as an early test of how seriously Texas’s new Business Court system will treat trade secret theft by former insiders. A unanimous jury, a willful-misconduct finding, and a verdict reaching deep into eight figures all suggest the court took the underlying conduct seriously — even if the final collectible number still depends on what happens next at the appellate level.
SOURCE:
This article was prepared using publicly available material concerning ES3 Minerals, LLC v. Kreines, Ryan, LMP, et al., including the Austin American-Statesman’s original reporting and its Yahoo Finance syndication, ES3 Minerals’ own press release distributed via PR Newswire (and republished by ADVFN), and additional coverage from BriefGlance and Austin Today / National Today. ES3’s press release was used to confirm the exact case name, trial dates, jury composition, and direct quotes from founder Trey Stanton and lead trial counsel Michael Marin. The Statesman’s reporting was used to confirm the defendants’ approximately $20 million in revenue over eight months and the subsequent appeal to Texas’s 15th Court of Appeals.