(DOWNLOAD) "Sternberger v. Marathon Oil Co." by Supreme Court of Kansas " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Sternberger v. Marathon Oil Co.
- Author : Supreme Court of Kansas
- Release Date : January 17, 1995
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 80 KB
Description
The opinion of the court was delivered by This is a multistate oil and gas class action suit involving Kansas and non-Kansas plaintiffs who own royalty and overriding royalty interests in oil and gas leases located in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Utah, and Colorado. The Louisiana, Utah, and Colorado leases are no longer in the case and are not in issue on appeal. Defendant Marathon Oil Company's predecessor in interest, TXO Production Corp. (TXO), deducted from the royalties ""marketing costs"" or ""gathering line amortization expenses"" to recover a portion of its expenses in constructing and maintaining gas gathering pipeline systems to transport gas from the lease to markets off the lease. The trial court held the deductions improper, and Marathon Oil Company appealed. Other issues include conflict of law issues, whether a class should have been certified, and the notices given to the class members. The facts are not substantially disputed. Plaintiff Martha Sternberger owns a royalty interest in an oil and gas lease in Barber County, Kansas. She is the named representative of a class of plaintiffs who own royalty and overriding royalty interests in oil and gas leases located in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. The leases were owned and operated by TXO, which was merged into Marathon Oil Company (Marathon) on December 31, 1990. Plaintiffs and Marathon stipulated that the rights of all parties should be construed according to the language of the gas royalty clause in Sternberger's lease, which provides in pertinent part that lessee agrees ""[t]o pay lessor for gas of whatsoever nature or kind produced and sold, or used off the premises, or used in the manufacture of any products therefrom, one-eighth (1/8), at the market price at the well, (but, as to gas sold by lessee, in no event more than one-eighth (1/8) of the proceeds received by lessee from such sales), for the gas sold, used off the premises, or in the manufacture of products therefrom, said payments to be made monthly."" At issue in this appeal are 19 wells in Barber County, Kansas, involving 38 individual royalty interest owners, and numerous wells and royalty and overriding royalty interests in Oklahoma and Texas.
 "Sternberger v. Marathon Oil Co." by Supreme Court of Kansas " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}