Boris A. Hidalgo

Boris Hidalgo is a trial lawyer in Holland & Knight's Houston office. Mr. Hidalgo's practice focuses on general civil and complex commercial litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts, as well as in federal bankruptcy courts and before arbitration panels. He has more than 44 years of experience in litigation and dispute resolution matters in addition to providing general business advice.

Mr. Hidalgo represents clients in a wide range of commercial business disputes, including contracts, fraud, deceptive trade practices, negligence, collections, fiduciary duty, corporate governance and shareholder/partnership disputes. He has also counseled clients in the areas of construction litigation, intellectual property rights, products liability, personal injury, labor and employment, noncompete agreements and restrictive covenants, misappropriation and theft, trust and estate disputes, as well as condemnation, tax, real estate, bankruptcy and creditors' rights, partnerships and joint ventures.

Mr. Hidalgo's clients have included major corporations in a variety of industry groups, such as architecture, automotive, banking, construction, engineering, insurance, medical, manufacturing, oil and gas, ranching, real estate, retail, seismic data, shipping and timber management.

Representative Experience

• Represented a Houston-based regional architectural firm against claims brought by a real estate developer alleging that the architectural plans for a major retail shopping center were deficient and resulted in damage to the developer; after two separate appeals, the Texas Supreme Court dismissed the plaintiff's claims in full based on an expired statute of limitations and the failure to timely file a statutorily required certificate of merit providing a factual basis for its allegations
• Represented a Canadian corporation in U.S. District Court against claims by U.S. companies that it had infringed upon patents and intellectual property rights involving the encapsulation of electrified rail systems; case settled on terms satisfactory to the client
• Represented a physician group in a dispute with its business partner over the ownership and management of a multi-story professional office building; case was resolved on terms favorable to the clients, which included the sale of the building at a value that paid trade creditors and returned substantial equity to the clients, and allowed the clients to acquire an ownership interest and a multiyear lease in the building
• Represented a national engineering firm that provided testing and consulting services to various companies involved in the capping of the Macondo well explosion in the Gulf of Mexico; no claims were asserted against the client or its engineers in the resulting BP Deepwater Horizon litigation, but they were subpoenaed to testify in a series of depositions in New Orleans; depositions were concluded with no resulting claims against the client
• Represented a national alarm monitoring system corporation against claims that, by hiring the former employees of a competitor, it had engaged in misappropriation of trade secrets and proprietary information; after the competitor's repeated failure to secure injunctive relief against the client in a series of hearings, the competitor nonsuited the case
• Represented a national alarm monitoring system corporation in a suit against a regional competitor for misappropriation of trade secrets and proprietary property; the case was settled to the complete satisfaction of all parties and for confidential consideration
• Represented the widow and family of a prominent businessman in litigation against a bank serving as executor, trustee and manager of the family's assets in pursuing claims of mismanagement and misappropriation of millions of dollars in family trusts and bank accounts; after the bank sought to dismiss the lawsuit and compel arbitration, which was rejected by the trial and appellate courts, the bank settled on terms favorable to the family
• Represented an East Texas landowner in its efforts to evict a tenant operating a nonhazardous waste injection well on the landowner's property as a result of more than $6 million in unpaid rent; in a series of lawsuits in state district court and county court at law, the tenant sought to enjoin the landowner's efforts on allegations of breach of contract and tortious interference; at trial, the tenant confessed judgment for unpaid rent, interest, attorneys' fees and costs in exchange for the landlord's agreement to convey the property for a negotiated price
• Represented three former National Oilwell Varco (NOV) employees against NOV's claims that they and their new employer had conspired to misappropriate NOV's trade secrets, customer lists and product information; after a four-week trial, the jury rendered a complete defense verdict
• Represented a multinational food company's bottled water division in a dispute with the adjacent landowners relating to the alleged drainage of an aquifer; the client was awarded summary judgment at trial level, which was affirmed at the intermediate appellate level and again at the Texas Supreme Court, resulting in the affirmation of Texas' rule of capture for underground water rights
• Represented a client in setting aside deceased spouse's will for lack of testamentary capacity and undue influence; the estate included a multimillion-dollar South Texas ranch, livestock, mineral interests and other real estate in a multicounty area; the case settled in the client's favor, and the defective will was withdrawn from probate, after which the client was awarded 100 percent of ranch properties and majority of mineral interests, livestock and real estate in other counties, as well as the right to establish a charitable foundation to receive the balance of the estate property
• Represented a bankruptcy trustee in an action against a petroleum/chemical trading company's founders and shareholders to recover estate assets transferred to offshore affiliates immediately before bankruptcy filing; the trial court rendered judgment in favor of the client
• Represented an art publishing house and nationally known western artist in a copyright infringement case against art dealers; the judgment permanently enjoined the art dealers from selling unauthorized prints
• Represented a European crane manufacturer in litigation against a NASA subcontractor to recover the unpaid purchase price for an overhead crane system used in the manufacture of space shuttle solid rocket boosters; the case settled favorably for the client
• Represented an apartment developer in a combined litigation/arbitration dispute regarding a general contractor's breach of contract on the multimillion-dollar renovation of 450-unit apartment complex; issues included architectural plan and code compliance, asbestos remediation and delay damages; the client received both court judgment and arbitration award against the contractor for substantial monetary damages
• Represented a neighborhood association for a lake resort community in a deed restriction enforcement action; trial court enforced deed restrictions and rendered an award to the client
• General litigation and corporate representation of luxury car dealership and other dealerships, including negotiations with automobile manufacturers and distributors and appearances before the Texas Motor Vehicle Commission regarding franchise issues
• General litigation and corporate representation of a privately held timber management company with holdings in excess of 25,000 acres in a multicounty area
• General litigation and corporate representation of privately held seismic data company with one of the largest data libraries in South Texas
• General litigation and corporate representation of a global offshore energy engineering and construction company specializing in offshore pipelines, subsea production systems and other offshore infrastructure