On November 19, 2024, firm client RWE achieved a complete trial victory following years of hard-fought litigation, culminating in a five-day bench trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. 

Since 2021, Wilson Sonsini has represented RWE (and its predecessor, Innogy)—a renewable energy company—in defending multiple contract disputes arising out of RWE’s acquisition of renewable energy projects. In 2023, RWE prevailed at trial as the court rejected the plaintiffs’ claim for approximately $70 million in damages related to the development and construction of a wind farm in western New York known as the Cassadaga Project. Undeterred, the same plaintiffs returned to assert a separate breach of contract, this time claiming that they were entitled to $112 million in damages because RWE supposedly improperly transferred its interest in the renewable energy projects. 

In an exhaustive and well-reasoned 87-page opinion, Judge Jennifer Rochon conclusively dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim, securing a complete victory for RWE. Notably, the court recognized that even though the plaintiffs’ reading of the key contractual language was “arguably more faithful to the plain text,” RWE had successfully demonstrated that adopting that reading would lead to a “commercially unreasonable result.” The court instead confirmed that the provision was ambiguous, and that the extrinsic evidence presented during the trial supported RWE’s position. The court also separately found that RWE had established a res judicata defense because the plaintiffs had sufficient notice of the second claim to assert it during the first litigation.

Wilson Sonsini partner Eli Richlin served as co-counsel to RWE in the litigation, alongside Paul Hastings.