TEXAS PROBATE COURT IS NOT THE PLACE TO LITIGATE COLORADO ROYALTY PAYMENT DISPUTE

摘要

Presumably because they had found a sympathetic jury, overriding royalty owners in the McElmo Dome Unit, a carbon dioxide unit in Colorado, sued the unit producers in the statutory probate court of Denton County, Texas. They alleged that the defendants, affiliates of Shell Oil Company and Mobil Oil Corporation, had improperly deducted transportation charges from their royalty payments since 1982. Among the plaintiffs were the trustees of certain inter vivos and charitable trusts. During the course of the litigation the court certified a class of plaintiffs consisting of all overriding royalty owners under Shell and Mobil leases committed to the unit.