There’s new information about the multi-million dollar lawsuit settlement regarding Continental Resources Inc. we reported earlier this week.
The fight over alleged underpaid royalty payments on leases in northern Oklahoma actually totaled $66.9 million and not the approximately $59 million as initially estimated by Continental Resources.
The settlement involved 34,000 class members who were mineral owners or former mineral owners. And one of those 34,000 is the individual who has appealed the 40 percent attorney fee totaling $23 million, not Continental Resources.
Continental has already paid the settlement fees to the individual class members. The attorney fee payment has been put into a client-trust account where it will be held until the appeal with the Oklahoma Supreme Court is settled.
“It sits there until the appeal is over,” said one attorney involved in the original litigation.
The lone individual who filed the appeal is Daniel M. McClure of Houston, an attorney who held mineral interests on one acre of a well at Enid. He is also listed as a partner in the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm based in Houston.
Some elements of the settlement were recently sealed on orders of the district judge who handled the case. The affected documents were lists of mineral holders as maintained by Continental Resources. The company considered them to be confidential since it also involved payments to the individual mineral holders.
