The ghosts of Clinton Manges and people like him continue to haunt executive right owners in Texas. In the 1980’s, Mr. Manges’ abuse of his non-participating royalty owner inspired the Texas Supreme Court to re-affirm the obligations of an executive right owner to the NPRI owner: “utmost fair dealing” and a fiduciary duty.
In Friddle
For the sake of conversation let’s say I burgle your trade secrets after failing to close a big deal that would have saved your company. I would be in big trouble, according to a bankruptcy court in In re TXCO Resources., Inc., a case study in treachery and self-dealing in the executive suite worthy
My, how times change! In a suit that brings the chaos, frenzy, and all-embracing madness of 2008 Haynesville leasing activity into focus, Hall Ponderosa LLC vs. Petrohawk Properties L.P. held that reformation of an oil and
Highland Capital Mgmt., L.P. et al v. Ryder Scott Co. shows how far a plaintiff will reach to find deep pockets to pay for a bad investment. Here, the plaintiffs went after the reservoir engineers who made reserve estimates and to a purchaser who acquired notes after the plaintiff acquired theirs. There was a question
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law two bills significantly revising Louisiana’s oilfield cleanup statute, La. R. S 30:29. The new law affects the procedures for remediating oil field pollution and resolving oilfield contamination claims. The purupose is to expedite the remediation process and the resolution of claims.
For the highlights that were important
Finally, a criminal case those who raise money should consider. Hays v. State informs us of several basic rules to follow when selling oil and gas interests to strangers. They are simple but important:
Rule 1: If you tell your targets that you are raising the money to drill a well, you should go ahead
BY CHANCE DECKER
Kurt Mix’s nightmare probably won’t happen to you, but ignoring electronic discovery laws could cause you big problems in litigation.
You might have heard of Mr. Mix, the former BP engineer now facing federal obstruction of justice charges for deleting text messages about the 2010 Gulf oil spill. His nightmare is playing