In the Estate of Larry Wayne Ewers is a reminder of a few guidelines for oil and gas investing:
Texas Court Rules in Suit Over Minerals in Another State
Scheming to find the most remote and inaccessible county in Texas (my vote is Yoakum but there is no paucity of candidates) in which to dish out Texas home-town justice to an out-of-state defendant? Consider Bauer and Braxton Minerals II v. Braxton Minerals III.
THE TAKEAWAY
Before paying your filing fee, be very sure the
A Breach of Fiduciary Duty in the Oil Patch
Antero Resources Corp. v. C & R Downhole Drilling, Inc. et al, proves again the extreme risk when one bites the hand that feeds him. Shoutout to Greek poet Sappho, 600 BCE.He She (oops) probably had a Dalmation. Antero sued former employee Kawsak and his accomplices Robertson and his companies for breach of
Federal Receiver Allowed to Abandon Texas Pipeline
Securities and Exchange Commission v. The Heartland Group Ventures LLC et al. explains what a receiver under federal law has the right to do. Much like Nick Saban’s offense against a certain team, she can do just about anything she wants.
The assets
The SEC applied for appointment of a receiver for a group of
Another Remand in Louisiana Coastal Zone Cases
Parish of Plaquemines v. Northcoast Oil Co. is yet another remand of yet another of the 43 suits filed in state courts against a legion of oil and gas companies under the Louisiana’s State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978. The suits arise out of the defendants’ decades-long oil production activities on the
Will the New Texas Business Court Impact Oil and Gas Cases?
Co-author Taylor Hall*
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
Bad Guys in Energy 2022
With it being Lent and all, we ask, are this year’s Ferrymen of the River Styx using these 40 days to turn from wickedness and find their way to repentence? Who knows, but we do know that as alternative energy rises, so do associated grifters, frauds and thieves. And political malpractice is a new category.
Louisiana Coastal Zone Suit Returns to State Court
Plaquemines Parish, et al v. Chevron et al has characteristics of the many pending climate-change suits brought by governments in state courts against Big Oil, which Big Oil tries to remove federal court. In this case the question was whether the producers were acting under federal officers’ control when they ramped up oil production during
Louisiana Legacy Lawsuit Survives Motion to Dismiss
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
Texas Supreme Court Reverses Judgment Because of Lack of Written Notice
If you administer or advise on master service agreements, or for that matter any other contract that requires written notice, this post by my Gray Reed partner Joe Virene is essential reading:
Texas Supreme Court: Actual Notice Does Not Satisfy Written Notice Requirement
In short, the Supreme Court of Texas reversed a jury verdict in