ExxonMobil’s legal team clawed back on appeal $71.6 million that was paid in two lawsuits concerning environmental contamination claims.

The case before the Fourteenth District Court of Appeals in Houston concerned a lawsuit against two Fort Worth-based oil and gas magnates, Bryan C. Wagner and Duer Wagner III, and their 1994 purchase of mineral rights on 120,000 acres in north Louisiana from Exxon.