A judge needs to learn a lot more in advance of selecting whether or not to toss a civil lawsuit filed by Continental Sources against Oklahoma City lawyer Blaine Dyer and a lot of other events accusing the group of applying a royalties scheme to steal from the electricity giant.
Dyer seeks dismissal of the scenario with prejudice for the reason that he argues Continental Sources acted outside the legislation when its protection director toured a for-sale building he owned on April 19, having images of maps and documents inside a tenant’s offices.
Dyer believes Continental posed as a fictional occasion interested in obtaining the home based upon a tip that Continental-owned data was inside the building.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma County District Court docket Decide Anthony L. Bonner Jr. said he would give both equally functions time to perform discovery in the scenario.
Discovery on Dyer experienced not nonetheless occurred, simply because Dyer was shielded from Continental’s discovery actions through a stay issued by another Oklahoma County District Courtroom decide.
The choose issued the remain for the reason that Dyer is a named co-conspirator in a federal prison case that convicted a previous Continental Means employee accused of getting concerned in the exact same scheme. Having said that, Dyer has not still been charged with a criminal offense.
A planned listening to previously this month to revisit that problem experienced not been held as of this 7 days.
Bonner desires to know extra just before producing a choice about Dyer’s motion in his court.
“The courtroom finds it a bit disturbing that correct protocols have been not employed,” Bonner said. “It is discovery 101.”
Bonner reported he would like to know a lot more conditions about how the tour was established up and executed.
“If there is almost nothing there, there is nothing at all there,” Bonner reported, “but I am needing facts that could tilt my conclusion in 1 way or yet another.”
Dyer’s attorney, Joe White, agreed Continental Means really should have been in a position to pursue seeking into whether the idea experienced any advantage.
Nevertheless, White argued the business initially ought to have notified Dyer’s authorized crew of its fears and argued individuals ahead of a judge to see whether the stay blocking discovery involving Dyer really should have been lifted.
Attorneys symbolizing Continental say the firm’s agent didn’t obtain everything within the setting up associated to Dyer or the distinct allegations it makes in its civil situation towards the defendant or other parties.
Additional, they observed the for-sale building was not off limits for a company consultant to tour, specified that it was readily available for community tours at the time.
“When the company receives a tip that a making owned by Dyer is for sale and open up to the public with private facts belonging to Continental Methods hanging on the wall for every person to see, it should to be able to go test that out,” legal professional Michael Holmes argued.
The tour prompted Perpetual Production, the tenant in the setting up at the time, to file its personal lawsuit towards Continental Sources, describing what occurred to it as growing to the amount of currently being concerned in a “Watergate” style scandal.
“Perpetual was just an innocent bystander caught in Continental’s campaign towards Mr. Dyer,” the suit’s petition states.