Houston lawyers Sean Gorman and Peter Scaff had very different reasons for why their energy company clients couldn’t be sued in Texas over a failed $6.4 billion oil production agreement with the tiny African republic of Togo.

And Houston’s First Court of Appeals accepted both of their arguments in a decision that dismisses a tortious interference case against their clients. The background to the First Court’s decision in Brenham Oil & Gas v. TGS-NOPEC Geophysical is as follows.