Pickens goes to court to battle for millions
PECOS — Lawyers for oil mogul T. Boone Pickens and Mesa Petroleum Partners told jurors in a West Texas courtroom Friday that the Dallas billionaire “may give money to charity, but he’s not going to let you cheat him out of his rights.”
In opening statements in a business dispute in which hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake, attorney Andrés Correa accused another legendary name in oil, J. Cleo Thompson, and three Midland exploration and production companies of conspiring to cut Mesa out of a deal and steal Mesa’s 15 percent share in the ownership interests.
Lawyers for J. Cleo and the three oil and gas companies told Reeves County jurors that their clients did nothing wrong, that the evidence completely contradicts Pickens’ allegations and that Pickens brought the lawsuit only to appease his own ego for making bad business decisions during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009.
“The decision is in your hands whether or not to hold Pickens (and others at Mesa) responsible for their actions,” said Yetter Coleman partner Tim McConn,
who represents Midlandbased Baytech and Delaware Basin Resources. “We ask you to clear the good names of the (defendants) and, more importantly, the good people who work for these companies.”
The heart of the issue is whether J. Cleo and Baytech honored their end of an agreement they signed in 2007 with Mesa regarding ownership interests and revenues in more than 160 wells in West Texas’ Reeves and Pecos counties.
The legal dispute dates back to 2007, when Mesa signed an agreement with Baytech and J. Cleo Thompson to participate in acquisition of land oil wells in the Red Bull area of Reeves and Pecos counties. Mesa paid more than $125,000 to Baytech for its 15 percent share in the partnership. It also paid $75,000 to J. Cleo Thompson.
Pickens’ lawyers told jurors that the terms of the agreement required Baytech and J. Cleo Thompson, the operating partner, to notify Mesa and offer it the opportunity to participate in every interest that was acquired in the Red Bull area between 2007 and 2012.
Correa, an associate at Lynn Pinker Cox & Hurst, told jurors that they will see “a lot of pieces of paper” throughout the trial, which is expected to last for more than two weeks.
But the defendants “won’t be able to show you one that Mr. Pickens signed” in which Mesa agreed to sell its 15 percent stake in the partnership to Baytech, he said.
Correa said there are three key facts jurors need to know about the case: that Mesa, J. Cleo Thompson and Baytech had a written deal; that Baytech and J. Cleo Thompson wanted Mesa out of the deal; and that Mesa rejected the defendants’ efforts to buy them out.
The contract said if there was a change, the defendants would have to pay Pickens and it had to be in writing, he told jurors.
Correa argued that Baytech and J. Cleo Thompson took Mesa’s shares and then created a “fairy tale” to cover up their actions by fabricating a call from Pickens to J. Cleo Thompson and Baytech saying, “I’m out.”
Lawyers for the defendants said the evidence they have is no fairy tale.
Defense attorneys contend that Pickens saw 70 percent of his net worth — or about $2 billion — disappear in the fall of 2008 when oil and natural gas prices tanked by more than 50 percent and the stock market crashed.