On Sept. 19, U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal of the Southern District of Texas in Houston issued a final judgment in favor of the plaintiff in Devon Energy Corp. v. Donald C. Westacott. Rosenthal ordered Westacott, who previously worked for Devon, to pay the company $63,000 in damages and $80,000 in attorneys’ fees.
Devon’s lawyer Paul L. Mitchell, a partner in Houston’s Andrews Kurth, says the litigation wasn’t about the money. Devon wanted to establish who owns its data analysis, which is significant in an industry that conducts research to locate natural gas resources, Mitchell says.
