Tortious Inference: Economic Damages

Brief

The client, an international construction contractor, and another contractor were awarded contracts by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to restore Puerto Rico’s electric transmission and distribution stations after Hurricane Maria. However, only the other contractor received work from PREPA.

Subsequently, the performing contractor’s president and a government official were indicted for conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud related to the PREPA contract procurement. The client alleged that, but for the tortious interference, the client would have received work under its US$500 million contract with PREPA.

The client filed a lawsuit to recover its damages.

What we did

HKA personnel were retained by outside counsel to analyze and provide expert testimony on the client’s lost profits due to the tortious interference. HKA personnel performed the following work in this case:

• Analyzed and measured lost revenue under different scenarios;
• Reviewed contracts to identify comparable storm restoration projects;
• Analyzed and tested the client’s accounting records;
• Evaluated the client’s profit rates on similar storm restoration projects; and
• Quantified the client’s economic damages.

HKA personnel submitted two expert reports (an affirmative expert report and a rebuttal expert report) and testified in deposition.

Outcomes

The parties settled prior to trial.