Court Opinion

ID: 9760192
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 00:42:35.625073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:09.075431
License: Public Domain

GONZALEZ, Justice,
concurring.
I concur. A class action of this nature involving three different fields, different units and various non-unitized leases is unprecedented and virtually unmanageable. The defendants’ liability on the ultimate issue of whether the plaintiffs are owed additional royalties on gas produced from lands in which they have an interest depends on a myriad of factors including, but not limited to: 1) the language of the applicable leases; 2) whether division orders have been executed, and if so; 3) the language of the division orders at the time of executing the division orders; 4) the location of the sale of the subject gas, whether the gas is sold to interstate or intrastate purchasers; and 5) the identity of the field, unit or lease from which the gas is produced.
The evidence in the trial court showed that these factors vary among the plaintiffs and the only royalty owners in the purported class. As a result, plaintiffs did not establish that they met the prerequisites of class actions that there be questions of law or fact common to the class, and the prerequisite that the claims of the representatives be typical to the class. Therefore, any attempt to try this case as a class action would result in the splintering of the case into numerous individual trials. See 3b Moore’s Federal Practice ¶ 23.45[2] (2d Ed. 1976).
Plaintiffs argue that their ownership interest in the Bay City and East Bay City Fields qualifies them to represent owners in the Lucky Field where they have no interest. This contention is without merit. If this were so, the plaintiffs could claim that they would be entitled to represent royalty owners in fields anywhere in the State of Texas, and this should not be and is not the law.
To qualify as an adequate representative, one must be a member of the class one represents and “possess the same interests and suffer the same injury” as the class members. East Texas Motor Freight Systems, Inc. v. Rodriguez, 431 U.S. 385, 403, 97 S.Ct. 1891, 1986, 52 L.Ed.2d 453 (1977).
*818The plaintiffs, besides having failed to satisfy the commonality and typicality requirement of Rule 42(b), T.R.C.P., also failed to prove that under these facts, a class action is superior to other available methods of fair and efficient adjudication of this controversy.
The trial court failed to properly apply the standards of Rule 42(b)(4) to the facts. Therefore, the trial court’s decision is arbitrary and unreasonable and should be reversed.