Oklahoma City’s Continental Resources was handed a legal victory this week by the North Dakota Supreme Court.
The court ruled in favor of Continental in a fight over a lower court judgment adjudicating ownership of interests in an oil and gas lease and claims to revenue production.
The case involved Phillip Armstrong of Minot, North Dakota who sued Continental after the company learned of competing claims to the leasehold interests in question and started holding production royalties in suspense. First, the company sued Armstrong claiming it had overpaid him.
In its lawsuit, Continental also asked the district court to determine the ownership of the interests and the amount of revenue proceeds to which each defendant was entitled on the production from the wells.
The court eventually made its determination and dismissed Armstrong’s claims against Continental for underpayment of revenue proceeds and also ruled in the energy company’s favor.
Armstrong was the only defendant to take the case to the Supreme Court and lost on appeal.