Toby Neugebauer filed a formal petition in the Dallas division of the Texas Business Court on Friday, placing a heavy stack of printed legal documents onto the polished wood of the clerk's desk. The Fermi Inc. co-founder is suing the energy startup and three board directors following his abrupt removal from the corporate hierarchy. This legal maneuver exposes the fierce internal friction governing the private capital entities attempting to establish sovereign energy independence. The energy firm claimed the termination stemmed from specific contractual breaches. Neugebauer was terminated from employment on Thursday because of "conduct in violation" of his employment agreement, according to a corporate filing submitted by Fermi. The immediate consequence of this termination was his automatic removal from the board of directors. The legal dispute centers on the precise mechanisms of corporate governance within the highly leveraged private utilities sector, moving the conflict from glass-walled boardrooms into open court. The sovereign ambition of energy startups like Fermi relies on absolute internal alignment. Neugebauer explicitly challenges the structural authority of the board to execute his removal, demanding that corporate bylaws supersede unilateral executive action. His petition argues that under both Texas law and the organizational documents of the company, only the corporate shareholders possess the jurisdictional power to remove a sitting director. The lawsuit lays bare the precarious administrative frameworks underpinning firms that seek to decouple the technological elite from the public utility grid. The resolution of this boardroom conflict will dictate the capital trajectory of the hyperscale energy market, pricing the internal friction of sovereign energy secession.