Order filed December 30, 2016

In The

Eleventh Court of Appeals 

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No. 11-16-00177-CV

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KERWIN STEPHENS; THUNDERBIRD OIL & GAS, LLC; 

THUNDERBIRD RESOURCES, LLC; THUNDERBIRD LAND 

SERVICES, LLC; STEPHENS & MYERS, LLP; AND CHESTER 

CARROLL, Appellants

V.

THREE FINGER BLACK SHALE PARTNERSHIP; TREK 

RESOURCES, INC.; TIBURON LAND & CATTLE, L.P.; L.W. 

HUNT RESOURCES, LLC; AND RICHARD RAUGHTON, 

Appellees

———and———

L.W. HUNT RESOURCES, LLC AND RICHARD RAUGHTON, 

INDIVIDUALLY AND AS SUCCESSOR IN INTEREST OF 

ARAPAHO ENERGY, LLC, Cross-Appellants

V.

KERWIN STEPHENS; THUNDERBIRD OIL & GAS, LLC; 

THUNDERBIRD RESOURCES, LLC; THUNDERBIRD LAND 
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SERVICES, LLC; STEPHENS & MYERS, LLP; AND CHESTER 

CARROLL, Cross-Appellees

On Appeal from the 32nd District Court

Fisher County, Texas

Trial Court Cause No. DC-2013-0016

O R D E R

Appellants Kerwin Stephens and Thunderbird Resources, LLC have filed in 

this court an emergency motion for temporary stay pending a ruling on a second 

motion that they intend to file in this court pursuant to Rule 24.4 of the Texas Rules 

of Appellate Procedure. The movants indicate in their motion that the underlying 

judgment from which they have appealed is an adverse judgment of more than 

$35 million. Movants indicate that they have continued in their attempts to suspend 

the enforcement of the judgment. 

This court previously denied movants first motion for review under Rule 24.4

on October 27, 2016. Movants assert that they have now received commitments for 

the issuance of letters of credit and a supersedeas bond conditioned on the lifting of 

the abstracts of judgment that have been filed by the plaintiffs and intervenors in the 

case below and on the removal of liens created by the intervenors’ levies on certain 

property located in Young, Stephens, and Johnson Counties. According to their 

emergency motion, the trial court denied their motion to subordinate the abstracts 

yesterday—December 29, 2016—and took no action to remove the liens on 

movants’ property. Movants also claim that the plaintiffs informed the trial court 

that they were willing to subordinate their abstractsto the security interest supporting 

the letters of credit; however, the intervenors have posted movants’ property for 

foreclosure sales, which are scheduled for January 3, 2017, and February 2017.
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According to the motion, movants will file a second Rule 24.4 motion in this 

court as soon as the December 29 record with respect to the trial court’s most recent 

supersedeas ruling is prepared. In order to afford movants time to obtain a record 

with respect to the supersedeas ruling and file a Rule 24.4 motion in this court and

also to permit this court sufficient time to review the merits of the Rule 24.4 motion

once it is filed, we issue a temporary stay, effective immediately. See TEX. R.

APP. P. 24.4(c). 

Movants’ request for a temporary stay is granted, and the enforcement or 

execution of the underlying judgment against movants—Kerwin Stephens and 

Thunderbird Resources, LLC—is stayed pending further order of this court. As 

suggested in their motion and provided for in TEX. R. APP. P. 24.2(d), movants are 

hereby enjoined “from dissipating or transferring assets to avoid satisfaction of the 

judgment.”

PER CURIAM

December 30, 2016

Panel consists of: Wright, C.J.,

Willson, J., and Bailey, J.