A Martin County jury Wednesday awarded nearly $300,000 to a Palm City plastics manufacturer.
The money is to be paid by a rival Port St. Lucie firm for civil damages related to misappropriating a trade secret in a legal dispute spanning more than a decade.
After a three-day trial, a six-member jury Wednesday found that Chemplex Industries of Palm City suffered financial losses after a former employee in 1998 stole a machine and its design to set up a similar company in Port St. Lucie, called Premiere Lab Supply.
