Chevron and the Republic of Ecuador have beaten and bloodied each other for two decades now in what seems like just about every U.S. and Ecuadoran court that exists. The fight relates to claims in arbitration that Chevron predecessor Texaco polluted oil fields in Ecuador. Background here. And it has so far resulted in
Energy
Dual Drawworks Patent Nets Transocean a Federal Circuit Win
By Barry Barnett on
Fix in your mind an image — of an offshore drilling rig. One that looks like a big boat. You see the derrick. It sits atop and in the middle of the boat. And then you notice something odd. The derrick has two tops, from each of which a string of metal depends. What gives?…
Inventor Lost Patent by Signing At-Will Contract, Federal Circuit Rules
By Barry Barnett on
A great many of your bigger companies require new hires to sign contracts that convey to the employers any "Intellectual Property" that the workers "make or conceive" during the term of employment. Courts treat such assignments as valid in spite of the at-will nature of the relationship.
But what happens if a worker conceives an invention before starting the new…
Annals of Oil and Gas: Driller’s Damage to Real Estate Project Could Cost It, Fifth Circuit Rules
By Barry Barnett on
The Fifth Circuit ruled last week that the terms of an oil and gas lease could give a real estate firm the right to damages for drilling operations that hurt the firm's efforts to build and sell homes in a Shreveport subdivision. Greenwood 950, L.L.C. v. Chesapeake Louisiana, L.P., No. 11-30436 (5th Cir. June 12…
Annals of Oil and Gas: Posner on Leases
By Barry Barnett on
Do you think of Chicago as an oil and gas town? Dallas, yes; Houston, for sure; New Orleans, uh-huh; maybe Bismarck, North Dakota (for the shale gas); and perhaps even New York (because of trading oil futures on the NYMEX).
Chicago? Meh.
But wait up. Today Judge Richard Posner wrote about oil and gas leases.
Settlement Privilege? Ha!
By Barry Barnett on
In the last 30 days, two U.S. courts of appeals have held (sort of) that no "settlement privilege" — a right to deny others access to the terms of your settlements with third-parties — exists.
In the first case, the Federal Circuit ruled, "in light of reason and experience, . . . that settlement negotiations…
AMI in JOA Ended in 1974, Fifth Circuit Rules
By Barry Barnett on
If you've tried an oil and gas case, you've likely seen a form contract that the American Association of Professional Landmen wrote to "help landmen effectively do their jobs." And if your case dealt with a falling out over efforts to explore for, find, and produce oil and gas, the AAPL form you saw…
Annals of Oil and Gas: Mineral Owner Wins Fight with Seismic Supplier
By Barry Barnett on
Blawgletter adores trials. Let us tell you about our last one:
The other side thought the case related to theft of their 3D seismic data. They felt so strongly about it that at trial they asked for more than $70 million — for what they deemed misuse of their trade secrets.
But the court saw…
If You Own Land in the Lone Star State, You Also Own the Water Down Below, Texas Supreme Court Rules
By Barry Barnett on
The rule of "capture" has meant for a long time in Texas that the oil and gas lying beneath your land belong to you. Now it also means you own the subterranean water. The Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Day, No. 08-0964 (Tex. Feb. 24, 2012).
The Court ruled, 9-0, that limiting landowners' right to…
Second Circuit Explains Why It Lifted Order Barring Efforts to Enforce Ecuadoran Judgment in New York
By Barry Barnett on
Last September, a panel of the Second Circuit tossed a preliminary injunction that barred any action, anywhere, to collect on an Ecuardoran court's $17.2 billion judgment against Chevron for polluting part of the Amazon. Last week, the court got around to saying why.
[Blawgletter describes some of the dispute's facts, claims, and decades-long history here.]
The…