By Patrick Danner
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO – Opening arguments in a huge Eagle Ford Shale mineral-rights trial got underway Wednesday morning after the parties were unable to finalize an out-of-court settlement.
JPMorgan Chase Bank, as one-time trustee of the South Texas Syndicate Trust, is accused by some of the trust’s beneficiaries of mismanaging the mineral rights to 132,000 contiguous acres in LaSalle and McMullen counties.
The beneficiaries allege that JPMorgan cut lease deals with some of its commercial clients at rates and terms that were unfavorable to the trust.The trust owns the mineral rights but not the land.
The beneficiaries sued the bank in 2010 for $681 million in damages, plus undisclosed punitive damages.
Opening arguments had been scheduled to start Friday, but the lawyers asked Bexar County District Judge Larry Noll for four days to try to reach a final settlement.
The trust’s beneficiaries are scattered around the country and elsewhere, complicating negotiations.
More than half of the trust’s approximately 279 beneficiaries are plaintiffs.
JPMorgan has maintained that the beneficiaries’ claims were made with the benefit of hindsight, and that no one knew when the leases were inked in 2008 and 2009 that the Eagle Ford would eventually produce vast wealth from oil and gas plays.
The trial is expected to take four to six weeks to complete.
Details on the opening statements are at HoustonChronicle.com.
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