Pursue Energy Corp. v. Abernathy

77 So. 3d 1094, 176 Oil & Gas Rep. 402, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 496, 2011 WL 5027134
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 13, 2011
DocketNo. 2009-CA-01794-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 77 So. 3d 1094 (Pursue Energy Corp. v. Abernathy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pursue Energy Corp. v. Abernathy, 77 So. 3d 1094, 176 Oil & Gas Rep. 402, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 496, 2011 WL 5027134 (Mich. 2011).

Opinion

KING, Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This Court must determine whether an oil company can deduct reasonable processing and investment costs from the payments made to royalty owners. If so, we must determine whether Mississippi Code Section 53-3-39 is applicable in calculating the damages owed to royalty owners for unreasonable deductions. We affirm the chancellor’s holding that reasonable processing and investment costs may be deducted from royalty owners’ payments. However, the chancellor erred in failing to apply Section 53-3-39 to calculate damages. Thus, we affirm in part, and reverse and remand for recalculation of damages consistent with this opinion.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. In the 1960s, Shell Oil Company built the Thomasville Gas Plant in Mississippi, at a cost of $41 million, to process “sour” gas and turn it into marketable “sweet” gas and its by-product, marketable sulfur. In order to recover the costs of operation and its investment, Shell developed and implemented an equation that contained two primary components. The first component consisted of the actual [1097]*1097capital investment combined with a return on that investment, and the second component represented the cost per day of operating the plant.

¶ 3. Using this formula, Shell charged all royalty owners with a proportionate share of processing and investment costs by deducting a fee from the royalty owners’ checks. In 1974, royalty owners challenged the use of the formula in Piney Woods Country Life School v. Shell Oil Co., 539 F.Supp. 957 (S.D.Miss.1982). The district court found for Shell, and the plaintiffs appealed. On appeal, the Fifth Circuit determined that the royalty owners could be taxed with costs of processing their gas as long as the fees were reasonable. Piney Woods Country Life School v. Shell Oil Co., 726 F.2d 225, 241 (5th Cir. 1984). The Fifth Circuit remanded the case to the district court to address the reasonableness of Shell’s costs. Id. The district court found the costs to be reasonable, thus approving Shell’s formula. At the time of the Piney Woods case, Shell had not recovered the full $41 million of its investment. Shell completed recovery of the $41 million capital investment in 1990.

¶ 4. In 1978, Pursue commenced sour gas development activities in Thomasville. In 1979, Pursue built its own gas processing plant. The Pursue plant was built at a cost of $53 million, which was recovered from its royalty owners. By December 1995, Pursue had recovered the full amount of investment for its Thomasville plant. In early 1996, Pursue purchased Shell’s plant, the associated wells, reserves and related facilities for $28,130,000. As a result of the purchase, Pursue decided to use the Shell plant for all production and dismantled its own plant.

¶ 5. In 1996, Pursue moved into the Shell plant and began using the Shell gas processing formula to deduct costs from the royalty owners. Although Pursue had paid only $28,130,000 for Shell’s processing plant, associated wells, reserves, and related facilities, Pursue continued to use the Shell $41 million capital investment as part of the formula for recovery of the cost of production.

¶ 6. In December 2000, James B. Sykes and thirty-six other plaintiffs (“the Sykes plaintiffs”) filed this action in the Chancery Court of Simpson County, requesting that the court order an accounting of capital-investment charges withheld since Pursue had assumed ownership and determine whether the amount of capital investment was assessed correctly. On December 13, 2001, an amended complaint was filed, increasing the number of plaintiffs to forty-nine.

¶ 7. In February 2002, the case proceeded to trial. On September 20, 2002, while the parties were awaiting the chancellor’s decision, Pursue filed a voluntary petition for relief under Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code in the Southern District of Mississippi. The filing of the bankruptcy petition automatically stayed the chancery-court case and prevented the chancellor from entering a final judgment. On June 16, 2003, the bankruptcy court lifted the stay and allowed the chancery court to rule on the case, providing any judgment would not be final and the appeal time would be tolled pending further order of the bankruptcy court.

¶ 8. On October 7, 2003, the chancellor found that the capital investment costs of the Shell plant had been previously recovered. The chancellor held that Pursue was unreasonable in requiring the Sykes plaintiffs to pay for their share repetitively. Therefore, the Sykes plaintiffs were entitled to damages equal to their pro rata share of the capital-investment charges deducted by Pursue that duplicated the capital investment previously recovered by Shell. The chancellor relied on Pursue’s [1098]*1098records, which valued the reserves purchased from Shell at $58,901,000, to determine that the Shell plant was a non-cost item and should have been valued at zero instead of $41 million. Thus, the chancellor, in reliance on Piney Woods, held that Pursue could continue to deduct daily plant-operating expenses, but that the Sykes plaintiffs were entitled to relief for any amount charged above and beyond operating expenses, or their pro rata share of $42,482,919.47.1

¶ 9. On May 26, 2004, the bankruptcy court lifted the stay a second time for the chancery court to rule on the issue of punitive damages. After a hearing on January 22, 2008, the chancellor found that a fiduciary relationship existed between Pursue and the Sykes plaintiffs, and that Pursue’s conduct in using Shell’s investment number to deduct unreasonable capital-investment charges could warrant punitive damages. On January 30, 2008, the chancellor entered his ruling denying punitive damages but granting attorneys’ fees and costs. The chancellor awarded the Sykes plaintiffs attorneys’ fees at forty percent of actual damages, together with expenses.

¶ 10. On June 10, 2009, the bankruptcy court lifted the stay a third time, allowing the chancery court to enter a final judgment on all issues without further order of the bankruptcy court. On October 2, 2009, the chancellor entered a final judgment awarding the Sykes plaintiffs actual damages of $684,717.13, their pro rata share of $42,482,919.47, prejudgment interest on actual damages at six percent simple interest, attorneys’ fees based on forty percent of actual damages, litigation expenses and interest on all amounts from the date of judgment at six percent per annum.

DISCUSSION

¶ 11. Pursue raises the following issues on appeal: (1) Whether the chancery court erred in finding that Pursue was liable to the Sykes plaintiffs for unreasonable processing fees deducted from royalty payments on poisonous sour gas produced from wells operated by Pursue, (2) whether the chancery court erred in failing to apply res judicata to bar the claims of the Sykes plaintiffs, (3) whether the chancery court erred in finding the relationship between Pursue and the lessors to be fiduciary, (4) whether the chancery court erred in finding that punitive damages could have been awarded and awarding attorneys’ fees in lieu of punitive damages, (5) whether the chancery court erred in its award of prejudgment interest, (6) whether the chancery court erred in failing to apply the statute of limitations to bar some of the claims of the plaintiffs.

I. Reasonableness

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Bluebook (online)
77 So. 3d 1094, 176 Oil & Gas Rep. 402, 2011 Miss. LEXIS 496, 2011 WL 5027134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pursue-energy-corp-v-abernathy-miss-2011.