Its time again to report on climate-related news from a perspective other than the alarmists. I’ll leave it to those who know more than I.
First, have you wondered why all the news from your Google search seems to spell climate D-O-O-M? Maybe its because the UN has teamed up with the search engine to
This seems to be the season for oil patch courts to return property to its rightful owners. Last week it was a regulatory taking by the City of Dallas. This week it is Northwest Landowners Association v. State of North Dakota, in which the North Dakota Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional on its face a
Co-author Trevor LawhornIf you have ever wondered how many ways a cocktail of stupidity*, treachery and feckless government can inflict financial harm on the undeserving, including the citizens the feckless government leaders are supposed to serve, see City of Dallas v. Trinity E. Energy, LLC.
Facts
In 2008 during the Barnett Shale drilling boom
Co-author Justin CowanJust because parties agree that disputes over a contract will be subject to binding arbitration doesn’t mean there won’t be wrestling at the courthouse beforehand. In LLOG Exploration Offshore, LLC v. Samson Contour Energy E&P, LLC, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana resolved a motion to compel arbitration and to dismiss a lawsuit by staying the litigation pending the outcome of the arbitration but not dismissing the case.
Continue Reading Arbitration Over Offshore Leases Does Not Warrant Lawsuit Dismissal
Co-author Jeremy WalterArk Sand Co., Inc. v. Bradley Demolition & Constr., LLC, et al has the appearance of a Hatfield and McCoy-grade grudge match. As often happens when litigation gets personal, the Texas Citizens Participation Act was invoked. The TCPA is the statute that protects citizens’ First Amendment rights such as free speech and
You might recall this post on Broadway National Bank, Trustee v. Yates Energy Corporation. We now have Yates Energy Corporation et al v. Broadway National Bank, Trustee, the court of appeals’ ruling after remand. Recall the result from the Supreme Court: Execution of the 2013 Amended Correction Mineral Deed by the parties to the original 2005 Mineral Deed and the 2006 Correction Mineral Deed, without joinder of the current owners of the minerals, complied with Texas Property Code §5.029. The question remaining was whether the current owners were bona fide purchases for value without notice. Skipping all sorts of rulings on side issues, the result is that current owner Yates was not a BFP. Other appellants survived to fight another day.
Continue Reading Texas Correction Deed Statute Revisited … Again
Co-author Max BrownIn the Estate of Terry Banta presents yet another purported Texas land transaction doomed because of disregard for the Statute of Frauds. Terry Banta and the Herriotts entered into an oral agreement for the Herriotts to purchase a piece of property from Banta. In an unfortunate turn of events for everyone, Banta
Co-author Brittany BlakeyIn re: Estate of Robert Scott Masters, Deceased reveals the price to be paid for failing to timely admit a will to probate or as a muniment of title.
Know this about Texas probate law
The Estates Code requires that a will be submitted for probate (or as a muniment of title)
Withrow v. Chevron is another Louisiana legacy lawsuit, this one claiming that defendants Chevron and Vernon E. Faulconer, Inc., and their predecessors, improperly disposed of toxic and hazardous oilfield wastes in unlined earthen pits causing leaks, spills and other surface and subsurface damages and contaminating the soil and groundwater.
Defendants’ filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss the whole shebang for failure to state a claim. To defeat the motion the plaintiff had to plead specific facts, not mere conclusory allegations or legal conclusions masquerading as factual conclusions. On the other hand, a complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.
This the court did not offer much in the way of reasoning for its rulings; there will be plenty of time for that. The order is helpful as a laundry list of claims often asserted by legacy plaintiffs.
The court considered the following claims:
Continue Reading Louisiana Legacy Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss
A special thanks to Derek Younkers, a soon-to-be 1L at Baylor Law School, who gathered the material for this post.
Those with even a passing acquaintance with the Old Testament know that when the Good Book talks pestilence and destruction, its go-to is a horde of locusts. And so it is with the plethora of