pjc-oil-and-gas-2024-lib

PREFACE

Welcome to the 2024 edition of Texas Pattern Jury Charges—Oil & Gas . This is the fifth volume since the Oil & Gas Pattern Jury Charges Committee was formed and pro mulgated the initial 2016 volume. That effort followed extensive groundwork starting in 2000 by the State Bar of Texas’s Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law Section (OGERL) to

aid practitioners in crafting jury charges for oil and gas trials. Why have a separate oil and gas Pattern Jury Charge volume?

When I began working in the oil industry in the 1970s, skeptics called it a dying busi ness in light of pessimistic projections that domestic and worldwide petroleum supplies would soon be depleted. But, as Yogi Berra said, “It’s tough to make predictions, espe cially about the future.” Those forecasts of doom did not happen. The oil and gas indus try remains vital to our world, and especially to Texas. Recent years have even seen a flip to predictions of “peak demand” for oil and gas. The Committee thus seeks to assist courts and practitioners in properly applying the law to oil and gas disputes in Texas, which often set the trend for other jurisdictions in the oil and gas arena. The Committee obviously does not make law. Rather, we aim to provide questions for juries to answer that accurately reflect Texas law. That task requires keeping up with developments in the law and, if possible, providing guidance to authorities where there are unresolved issues. We also work with other Committees in areas of overlap, which are all subject to approval by the Oversight Committee before final publication. To those ends, this volume includes a new comment on confusion of goods; updates to the instructions and questions on improper use and cessation of production in paying quanti ties; updates to authorities cited for various issues; collaboration with the Business, Con sumer, Insurance and Employment Committee on updates to the trade customs comment and new instructions addressing predicate findings for specific performance and equita ble relief generally; and new admonitory instructions on deposition testimony and multi lingual jurors. We have enjoyed working with those groups toward common goals. This volume would not exist without the experience, expertise, and countless hours volunteered by the Committee members. Their willingness to share knowledge and engage in professional and collegial debate has been key to assembling this volume for our fellow lawyers. Many thanks to all of them for their devotion and hard work. Also, special thanks to my predecessor Craig Haynes, who ably chaired the Oil & Gas Pattern Jury Charges Committee in 2023 and 2024, after publication of the prior volume Finally, on behalf of our entire Committee, thanks to the State Bar staff who make the Committee’s work possible: Elma Garcia, our former legal editor who steered the ship from this Committee’s inception, and her successor Cole Cable. They both skillfully herded the cats and kept the trains running on time, for which we are most grateful. —Paul F. Simpson, Chair

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