All: I am posting an excerpt from the UPR 10-Q report. A link to this was given a few days ago by Jack Updike in post #972.
edgar-online.com
A a couple of responses were made by Bob and TWEST, but I think it is important that we all read it and discuss its possible relevance (I was too busy or lazy to go to the link at the time I read the original post, and I suspect others were too.)
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PART II. OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
In August 1994, the surface owners (McCormick, et al.) of portions of five sections of Colorado land that are subject to mineral reservations made by the Company's predecessor in title brought suit against the Company in the state District Court, Weld County, Colorado, to quiet title to minerals, including crude oil (in some of the lands) and natural gas. In September 1994, the case was removed to Federal court (the U. S. District Court for the District of Colorado), where the Company filed a motion for summary judgment asking the court to rule as a matter of law that it owns the oil and gas and all minerals that are part of a severed mineral estate. In February, 1997 the Federal court
remanded the case back to the state court. The Company's motion for summary judgment is scheduled for hearing in the state court on May 23, 1997. No trial date currently is set. Similar claims were made under identical mineral reservations by Utah and Wyoming surface owners in cases litigated in the Federal courts of Utah and Wyoming between 1979 and 1987. In those cases, the Federal courts held as a matter of law that, under the laws of Utah and Wyoming, these mineral reservations unambiguously reserved oil and gas to Union Pacific Railroad Company and its successors. These holdings were affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. While the Company believes that the rule of law applied by the Federal courts in Utah and Wyoming also should be applied under Colorado law, there are Colorado court decisions that could provide a basis for an alternative interpretation. The value of the disputed reserves in the properties subject to the lawsuit is estimated to be approximately $5 million. Approximately 400,000 acres of other lands in Weld County, Colorado, are subject to mineral reservations that are in the same form
as the reservations at issue in the present suit. An adverse interpretation of the reservations at issue is likely to implicate the mineral title in these other lands as well. In addition, over two million acres of lands elsewhere in Colorado are subject to the same forms of mineral reservations. Depending on the grounds of an adverse decision in the case, title to minerals held by the Company in some or all of these lands also could be affected, which might have the effect of significantly reducing the Company's interest in the Las Animas area of southeastern Colorado and the Denver-Julesburg Basin in eastern Colorado.
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I am posting this at the request of a fellow IMMM investor, who also told me that UPR has offered to buy Amoco properties just north of the IMMM site.
Any expert opinion (or uninformed gossip) on this news and the implications of the lawsuit will be welcome.
Kevin
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