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Latest from Gray Reed & McGraw LLP

In recent months we have discussed litigation funding, specifically covering what litigation funding entails, whether such agreements are legal in different jurisdictions and the ethical issues surrounding litigation funding agreements. There’s an opportunity to continue the conversation as we keep a close eye on the Texas Legislative Session, just as we did last month with a recap of bills related to civil litigation. Members of the Texas House and Senate introduced bills relating to…
Continuing to deliberate about when and how to exit from his family business, Big Daddy Ernest Bux, 65, considers yet another task on his checklist: Determine Exit Strategy. He’s already Identified Successors and Decision Makers, and Planned for Contingencies. Yet to be tackled are Establish Goals, Plan Entity Structure and Transfer, Complete Estate Planning, and Implement Document Maintenance and Control. Asking his banker last week about a new loan to expand his business, Big Daddy learned that…
Co-author Niloufar “Nikki” Hafizi The latest Fifth Circuit opinion in Seeligson v. Devon Energy Production, L.P. is the latest round in a class action that has been developing since 2014. The plaintiffs are royalty owners who leased to defendant DEPCO. They were certified by the trial court as a class based on an alleged breach of DEPCO’s implied duty to market gas. The issue on this appeal: Did the trial court abuse its discretion in certifying…
Co-author Chance Decker  Burlington Resources Oil & Gas Company, LP. v. Texas Crude Energy, LLC et al is another chapter in the back-and-forth over deduction of post-production costs from royalty payments. In “clarifying” (royalty owners might say “retreating from”) Chesapeake Exploration & Production, LLC v. Hyder, the Texas Supreme Court held that a royalty delivered into the pipeline or tanks is akin to a royalty delivered “at the wellhead.” The lessee was entitled to deduct…
Co-author Trevor Lawhorn A lot, if the claim before the court is for fraudulent inducement. Points to remember: Oral promises that contradict contract terms are pretty much worthless. In reviewing a fraudulent inducement claim, a court will assume the “victim” knows facts that would have been discovered by a reasonably prudent person similarly situated. Which means ask questions. A negotiating party is rarely obliged to volunteer information. If you want understandings to be binding, put them…
Realizing that at 65 it’s time to talk about succession of his family business – especially Buxboro State Bank, Big Daddy Ernest Bux identified his checklist: Identify Successions, Identify Decision Makers, Plan for Contingencies, Establish Goals, Plan Entity Structure and Transfer, Complete Estate Planning,  Determine Exit Strategy, and Implement Document Maintenance and Control. To succeed, what does identifying successions and decision makers look like for Big Daddy’s family business?…
Co-authors Chance Decker and Ethan Wood Marsha Ellison v. Three Rivers Acquisition, LLC, et al. reminds us what is required for an instrument to be a conveyance and what is required for a stipulation to be effective. When J.D. Suggs died in 1925, his heirs agreed to swap land with the Noelkes, and executed the Suggs Deed conveying several tracts to the Noelkes. One tract was described as “all of … the lands located North and West of the public…
The Green New Deal (read it for yourself; its not long), floating around Congress on a cloud of cow farts, is quite a grand and far-reaching manifesto.  Here are differing views from the media, think tanks, and other interested parties. They describe it better than I. Even though the GND is “impossible”, reliably left Slate opines that‘s why some people like it. Impossible plans are good for thinking and thinking leads to dreaming, and dreaming is the only…
You may recall our report that the Supreme Court of Texas was to take up the question of  whether an insurance policy required indemnification of over $100 million in defense costs related to the Macondo well blowout. The court has ruled in Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Houston Casualty Company. Anadarko, the insured, prevailed on the coverage question and the case was remanded to the trial court. Rather than try to explain it myself, I direct your…