Court Opinion

ID: 9692306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 15:51:01.384747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:19:33.988590
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Justice DORSEY.
This is an unusual case in which the movant for summary judgment is unhappy with the judgment received, and appeals from it seeking increased damages. The main bone of contention is whether the summary judgment was properly granted on the doctrine of unjust enrichment, with its two year statute of limitations, or whether it should have been granted on a breach of contract theory with a four year period as appellant contends. Although appellant plead that appellees breached the contract, an operating agreement for an oil and gas well, there is absolutely no evidence of such a breach.
*922The agreement spelled out how the parties’ interests in production would be affected should some not consent to the reworking of the well. There is no dispute that the Cantor appellees elected not to participate in the reworking, so their revenue interest diminished in accordance with the agreement until Mobil and the consenting parties recovered the reworking costs from production. However, the operating agreement did not place an obligation on the non-consenting parties, the Cantors, to take any action in order to suspend their payments. That being so, it is difficult to see how they could breach the contract. Rather, they received moneys they were not entitled to under the agreement, a classic case for application of the doctrine of unjust enrichment.
Mobil’s rights to an increased share of revenue of the well, and appellants’ decreased share, are determined by the contract, but no duty was imposed on appellants to take any action to implement those terms of the operating agreement. The mere receipt of money they were not entitled to does not constitute a breach. There is no evidence that appellants breached the contract. The summary judgment could not be properly granted on a breach of contract theory with its accompanying four year statute of limitations.
I agree the case should be affirmed.
Joined by Justice YÁÑEZ.