Class Action Suit May Affect 50,000 Haynesville Shale Landowners
On April 10, 2010 a class action suit was filed affecting Haynesville Shale property owners in all of the Haynesville Fields of north Louisiana. The suit is filed against the Commissioner of Conservation and operators in the Haynesville Fields. The basis of the suit is that the Commissioner of Conservation is authorized by statute to establish a production unit that can be drained by one well. Members within one of the proposed classes are being denied their pro-rata share of production and the other class members are being denied their market value of their leasehold interest ownership. This may affect some 50,000 property owners in northwest Louisiana!
We have met with some of the attorneys and are pleased with the representation. The attorneys are class action attorneys Fayard & Honeycutt of Denham Springs; Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn, LLP of New Orleans; Law Offices of Rudolph Estess, Jr. of Baton Rouge (in that office as special counsel is Jack C. Caldwell), Charles Tutt of Shreveport, Cave Law Firm of Baton Rouge, and Ryan Gatti an attorney from Bossier City. Through our own independent research we have learned that Mr. Caldwell was a contributing author to the Louisiana Mineral Code and also served as Secretary of the Department of Natural Resources.
If successful this would create a tremendous economic boom to this area by creation of many more jobs, not to mention a substantial increase to severance taxes to the state of Louisiana. We have received per request a filed copy of the pleadings filed in East Baton Rouge Parish. The suit explains the law and the resulting violation. Should you desire a copy of the suit please email your request to us at: www.fairdrilling.com. You may also wish to contact your attorney or local attorney for the group, Mr Gatti.
Andrew
Views: 6054
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Carl on -
If we want to talk about fair drilling why not put an end to the "gerrymandering" of these units that clearly circumnavigate around unsigned property. If there's going to be a horizontal well unit it should probably be a rectangle about 500-1000' wide and about 5000-6000 feet long.
My two cents....
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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Options, options, options ... and the opportunity to push the envelope of the law. It's the beauty of the American Way, and also it's curse (in the eyes of some). Seems to suit best when named as plaintiff, seems to chafe worst when named as defendant. Better than NOT having recourse, IMO.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Walker on
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I did not sue the operators, Jay, but I thought everyone would be interested to learn of it. It may affect all of us.
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Permalink Reply by Spring Branch,mineral owner on
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Your story under the heading says," The suit is filed against the Commissioner of Conservation and Operators in the Haynesville Fields". Sounds like you sued Operators to me.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Walker on
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I didn't mean to mislead you, Spring Branch, but I am not the plaintiff in the suit.
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Permalink Reply by sesport on
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Thanks, Andrew, for the heads up. I've sent a request for a copy so that I can discuss it further with a few experienced friends who can advise whether it would be a waste of effort or otherwise.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Walker on
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I've sent the copy to you, sesport. Please forward to your "experienced friends" for evaluation and let us know their opinion. Thank you!
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Permalink Reply by Kat Bloomfield on
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The Simon Peragine law firm is stellar. I'm not familiar with the others involved (that means absolutely nothing; I just don't know 'em).
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Permalink Reply by king john on
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i remember a few months back, xto was trying to form a couple of 900-1000 acre units. whatever happened on that deal? was that in the same area as this?
kj
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kj, i remember that, too. I think it was in Bienville Parish and a purported "fault" line was the "reason." If I recall, HK protested it. And it didn't get approved. I do know there are larger units along the state line -- smaller sections combined with the 640 acre sections.
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Permalink Reply by Checkmateking on
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Don't you love when the government "updates" things.
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Permalink Reply by Bobi Carr ("parker") on
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Imagine, if all the units were transformed to 80 acre tracts and the operators had unlimited money to drill the wells that they want to HBP.
Just HOW LOW COULD GAS PRICES GO.
This just sounds like a bad idea to me.
These folks leased with 640 acre units the SOP. Why change the rules of the race AFTER the horses are out of the gate. IMHO.
If we make it so onerous to do business in Louisiana, the drilling will eventually find a more hospitable home.
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