Attorney Avoids Limits on Crawley Petroleum Class Action Claims

An attorney can avoid conditions on representing future plaintiffs in class actions against Crawley Petroleum Corp. after his initial client decided to drop its case, the Tenth Circuit ruled Monday.

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma had said if Rex Sharp filed a similar class action, it had to be filed in the same federal district and the case assigned to the same judge. The court also allowed Crawley to seek costs and attorneys’ fees if such a suit was filed.

The initial case alleged Crawley underpaid royalties to owners of natural gas wells. The plaintiff, ...