Jury favors Sandbox Logistics in case against Arrows Up

U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. announced a unanimous jury verdict in subsidiary Sandbox Logistics' breach-of-contract lawsuit against Arrows Up LLC, an affiliate of OmniTRAX Inc.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of Sandbox on all 12 issues presented in the lawsuit, U.S. Silica officials said July 9 in a press release.

The jury found that Arrows Up breached a 2014 confidentiality and nondisclosure agreement with Sandbox. It also found that Arrows Up and its founder and Chief Executive Officer John Allegretti personally breached a 2015 settlement agreement with Sandbox and "committed fraud" against Sandbox, U.S. Silica officials said.

While the final amount of damages has not yet been confirmed by a trial court, the jury awarded monetary damages to Sandbox totaling more than $43 million, they added.

The verdict "underscores the inherent value of Sandbox and serves notice to others who have misappropriated our intellectual property that we will vigorously defend ourselves," said U.S. Silica President and CEO Bryan Shinn.

Arrows Up officials are disappointed by the jury's finding, "but the process remains incomplete and we remain confident that our position will prevail," Allegretti said in a separate press release.

"The complexities of this case stretch beyond the jury's charge and must be addressed in the trial judgment phase," he said. "This case is all about enforceability and open competition. SandBox is attempting to stretch the boundaries of contract enforceability purely to stifle competition."

Several judicial rulings remain in the preliminary jury award, OmniTRAX officials said.

"While the jury found for plaintiff on the contracts as written, we maintain that the contracts as written cannot be used to impede current or future Arrows Up business operations," said OmniTRAX CEO Kevin Shuba.

The case began in 2016, when Sandbox alleged Arrows Up breached a 2014 mutual nondisclosure agreement.