Secured a significant appellate win on behalf of a major energy company in insurance coverage litigation arising from a faulty cement job performed by an oilfield service company on our client’s Texas well.
GableGotwals team, led by Chris Thrutchley, secured more than $1.5 million in compensation owed to a senior executive of a publicly traded company.
GableGotwals represents Jet Commercial Construction, LLC and its owners, Steve Rich and Jake Sharp, in a negligent-misrepresentation and breach-of-contract dispute arising from the construction of a fountain at Ceasars Place in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Firm’s litigation team moved to dismiss the individual claims due to lack of personal jurisdiction. The trial court denied the motion and issued subsequent adverse rulings against the individual owners on discovery issues. The litigation team filed a petition for a writ of prohibition with the Nevada Supreme Court, which the Court ultimately granted and directed the trial court to dismiss Rich and Sharp.
On December 9, 2024, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, by unanimous vote of all justices participating, confirmed GableGotwals’ summary judgment victory obtained for its client David Qualls in a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against him by the Peoria Tribe of Indians. A company owned in part by Mr. Qualls managed the Tribe’s casino. When external forces caused a decline in casino cash flow, an external CPA and lawyer, according to the Tribe, devised and implemented a casino accounting change that resulted in five million in additional cash flow to the Tribe and increased the company’s management fee by a substantially lesser amount. The Tribe sued Mr. Qualls in an Oklahoma State District Court in Shawnee, alleging that through the accounting change, Mr. Qualls embezzled, committed fraud, breached fiduciary duties, was liable for four other related claims, and owed the Tribe a $2 million fine previously imposed by the Tribe’s gaming commission. After all the discovery was completed and two oral arguments held, the District Court found that the fine was unconstitutional and that all of the Tribe’s claims failed as a matter of law. Summary judgment was awarded to Mr. Qualls. The Tribe appealed. The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals rejected all of the Tribe’s arguments and unanimously affirmed the summary judgment against the Tribe. The Tribe then filed a petition for certiorari seeking discretionary review by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied the petition, thereby making the judgment in favor of the Firm’s client final.
Following a bench trial that took place on April 24, 2024, the 250th Judicial District Court of Travis County, Texas entered a Final Judgment in favor of BP America Production Company (BP). The lawsuit was one of several disputes between BP and Border to Border Exploration LLC, BBX Operating LLC (the Defendants), and other related entities. In this matter, the Defendants and a related entity entered into a Development Agreement with BP to perform seismic testing on approximately 6,500 acres owned by BP in Jasper County, Texas in exchange for a drilling credit of $200 per acre. The credits were never used because no wells were drilled by the Defendants. However, the Defendants refused to repay the unused credits, as was required by the agreement, and attempted to limit any payment obligation to a related entity that had declared bankruptcy and therefore could not be a party to this lawsuit. The Honorable Judge Amy Clark Meachum entered judgment in favor of BP on May 2, 2024 and awarded actual damages of $1,302,622 against the Defendants, jointly and severally, as well as pre-judgment interest bringing the total award to approximately $2 million.
GableGotwals obtained a significant victory in the Oklahoma Supreme Court for its client, the Jackson County Emergency Medical Service District. In a unanimous, published opinion on a public law question of first impression, the High Court issued a writ against a Grady County District Judge prohibiting further proceedings in a personal injury case against the District. Neither the Oklahoma Constitution authorizing creation of the District nor the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act, which protects counties and cities, expressly authorizes immunity for Districts from damage suits. The Supreme Court held, the District had sovereign immunity and prohibited the District Court from going forward in the suit against the District.
Successfully represented a local developer in a civil lawsuit protesting the legal sufficiency of the Referendum Petition related to Jenks Ordinance No. 1617.
BPX, Zurich American, and others sued Cameron International Corporation in Oklahoma state court for more than $65 million in connection with work that Cameron performed on an oil and gas well in DeWitt County, Texas. Cameron removed the case to federal court, even though Cameron and BPX were both citizens of Texas, claiming that BPX had been fraudulently joined as a plaintiff in an improper attempt to destroy diversity jurisdiction. BPX and Zurich American filed a Motion to Remand arguing, among other things, that the doctrine of fraudulent joinder did not apply to plaintiffs like BPX and Zurich American. The Honorable Charles B. Goodwin of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma agreed with BPX and Zurich American, noting the “pragmatic reasons to limit application of the fraudulent joinder doctrine to defendants and the absence of Tenth Circuit authority concluding that extension of the doctrine to plaintiffs is appropriate.” Therefore, Judge Goodwin concluded that federal jurisdiction did not exist and remanded the lawsuit back to Oklahoma state court.