By L.M. Sixel of the Houston Chronicle
(April 8) – Jack Grynberg figured something was amiss when his mineral royalties from Kinder Morgan for carbon dioxide were about 40 percent higher than they were from Exxon Mobil Oil Corp.
That led Grynberg to file a breach of contract lawsuit in Harris County four years ago, claiming he and his family had been shortchanged. A jury here recently awarded the Grynbergs $1.5 million after determining that Exxon Mobil failed to act in good faith.
But he’s hoping for more. Grynberg contends that a damages expert he hired from New York University wasn’t allowed to testify before the jury and that if he had, the royalty compensation would have been closer to $40 million. A lawyer for Grynberg said the 84-year-old Denver resident is looking at options for appealing the verdict.
Mineral rights owners — and there are hundreds of thousands in Texas alone — have been largely out of the spotlight during the big oil boom and bust. But some, like Grynberg, are lodging legal challenges that they’re not being paid properly.
“I will not be cheated,” said Grynberg, who began his oil career in 1953 after graduating with an engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines.
Read the full version of this article here in the Houston Chronicle.