Current Landscape of Royalty Dispute Litigation

Current Landscape of Royalty Dispute Litigation

Wednesday, October 13, 2021 at 9:00 am PDT, 10:00 am MDT, 11:00 am CDT, 12:00 pm EDT for 1.5 hours

Oil and gas royalties have been a consistent source of litigation for over a century, with no signs of letting up; in fact, just the opposite. For decades, royalty litigation has primarily focused on royalties on gas production. Now, however, lessors are bringing more and more challenges for underpayment of crude oil royalties. 

Consequently, topics that will be covered in this webinar include:

• Overview of the approaches taken by various jurisdictions, including “at the well” states, “marketable product rule” states, and variations of these.
  
  

• Examples of the key case law from specific jurisdictions to illustrate the range of approaches taken by the various states, sometimes resulting in different interpretations or applications of similar royalty clause language.
  
  
• Review of opinions from recently decided royalties cases, including class actions, and potential implications of those opinions for proper royalty calculations and future litigation.
  
  
• A discussion from the plaintiffs-lessors’ perspective of these recent royalty opinions and explanation of some of the theories or claims in certain pending cases.
  
  
• A discussion from the defendants-lessees’ perspective of these recent royalty opinions and some of the defenses that are being asserted in certain pending cases.  
  

OWEN L. ANDERSON, Professor, University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX
STACY BURROWS, Partner, Barton and Burrows, LLC, Mission, KS
MATT SALZMAN, Partner, Stinson LLP, Kansas City, MO (Moderator)
ELIZABETH L. TIBLETS, Partner, K&L Gates, Fort Worth, TX