Werge Law LLC Obtains Complete Dismissal of Oil and Gas Lawsuit

On October 17, 2016, Werge Law obtained a complete dismissal in favor of its client in the District Court for the City and County of Denver. The plaintiff, a Colorado-based oil and gas producer, sued Werge Law’s client, a Texas company, for breach of contract.

The plaintiff argued that a single letter that the Texas company sent to Colorado, notifying the plaintiff of an assignment in an oil and gas interest it operated, was sufficient to pursue in court. The Court disagreed, citing New Frontier Media, Inc. v. Freeman, 85 P.3d 611, 614 (Colo. App. 2003) for the proposition that “[w]hen the only alleged basis for jurisdiction is a contract between a resident plaintiff and a nonresident defendant, the necessary minimum contacts are not present to confer personal jurisdiction over such a defendant.” The court found that it lacked personal jurisdiction over the Texas company and dismissed the lawsuit outright.

Tom Werge represented the Texas company.

Colorado Supreme Court Raises the Bar

The Colorado Supreme Court recently decided the landmark case of Warne v. Hall, 2016 CO 50. In Warne, the Court changed the standard to evaluate motions to dismiss civil lawsuits. The Court identified the "growing need, and effort in our rules, to expedite the litigation process and avoid unnecessary expense, especially with respect to discovery." It then set aside the previous rule prohibiting dismissals unless a court could find "no set of facts" by which a plaintiff could prevail, instead adopting the "plausible on its face" standard to evaluate the sufficiency of a complaint.  Colorado state courts now follow the federal standard articulated in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009).

Thomas Werge submitted a brief to the Colorado Supreme Court on behalf of amicus in support of adopting the new standard.