It is often an attractive political gambit for legislative bodies to pass laws of doubtful constitutional validity in order to please their constituents. It can be a two-fer; when the court rules as expected the vanquished politicos then execrate the “activist judge”, securing even more votes and campaign contributions from said constituents owing to the
Your Legislature has adjourned after enacting significant bills affecting the energy industry. To sum it up, the industry has friends in high places whenever the Lege is in session (Alternative energy was in jeopardy for a while with regulatory burdens in SB 715 and 819 that would make California proud. My guess: Back in the
The U. S. Supreme Court struck down the “Chevron doctrine” that has plagued the citizenry of our great country since 1984. In Loper Bright Enterprises et al v. Raimondo, the Court ruled that the Administrative Procedure Act requires courts to exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within
The Texas Legislature has created a new Texas Business Court (the TBC) with jurisdiction over cases involving certain qualified (as in “big-dollar”) business transactions. HB 19 could affect large oil and gas cases; how and to what extent is to be determined. The consequences, intended and unintended, will be good and bad
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
[Updated] The North Dakota Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Thursday to consider who owns the right to profit from the value of the porous spaces within subsurface rock formations. The issue is over Senate Bill 2344, passed by the Legislature in 2019 and, no
Most bills filed in each legislative session fail. For the most part we are thankful for that. But today we summarize a few that survived while you weren’t paying attention. As usual, there are winners, losers, and rainouts.
HB 2730 beefs up the “Landowners’ Bill of Rights” in eminent domain negotiations and proceedings. It amends
Co-author Brittany BlakeyTexas lien law in some cases does not require the filing of a financing statement for priority perfection. However, as you might have learned in In re First River Energy, the Delaware Uniform Commercial Code did not recognize the priority of Texas producers’ unfiled, unperfected security interests in proceeds under Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 9.343. In contrast, Oklahoma Producers prevailed because the Oklahoma Lien Act in 2010 cured a defect still present in the Texas statute. Texas producers with a lien are subject to UCC choice-of-law, priority, and perfection of security interests rules.
Rep. Charlie Green introduced House Bill No. 3794 which, if passed, would replace Section 9.343 with the “Texas First Purchaser Lien Act.”
Continue Reading Texas Legislature to Consider Oil and Gas Lien Law Amendment
Co-authors: Gray Reed lawyers too talented and numerous to mentionI start with a promise: To leave you-know-what behind as soon as possible. In the meantime, here are summaries of your federal government’s effort to alleviate the distress caused by the situation. Click on each title for more detail and to learn about the appropriate
If you have employees, or you are an employee, you should know that Congress has passed and the President has signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to address the impact COVID-19 is having on the American workforce. Here is a summary from Gray Reed’s team of employment lawyers, headed by Ruth Ann Daniels