Lawsuit to be amended

• By TED GRIGGS
• Advocate business writer
• Published: Jan 13, 2009 - Page: 1D - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Baton Rouge insurance agent Jack Harless will be dropped as a defendant from businessman Steven Davis’ lawsuit against family members alleging fraud involving oil and gas royalties in the Haynesville Shale in northwest Louisiana.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Claiborne Parish, says Harless’ house in Prairieville is listed as the registered address for SOTJ LLC, which bought Davis’ property in the shale for what he claims is a fraction of its value.

Harless said Monday he was surprised to be named in the lawsuit, since he doesn’t know any of the Davis family members and has nothing to do with SOTJ.

Attorney Daniel D. Holliday, the registered agent and manager for SOTJ, said Monday that Harless has no connection to SOTJ, and an oversight by Holliday’s firm was the reason Harless was mistakenly pulled into the litigation.

Some years back, Holliday said he formed a limited liability corporation, or LLC, for Harless and a partner.

When Holliday formed SOTJ, on behalf of clients he declined to name, Holliday used the same form and inadvertently left Harless’ address on the form.

Harless said the information has since been corrected at the courthouse in Claiborne Parish.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to clear that up because Mr. Harless doesn’t deserve to be dragged through this,” Holliday said.

Davis’ attorney Lewis Unglesby said the claim against Harless will be immediately withdrawn, and apologized for any inconvenience that may have resulted from bad information provided through Holliday’s firm. However, Unglesby added that the rest of the lawsuit’s claims remain in place against others.

Davis has filed two lawsuits. The first alleges that Davis’ brothers, sisters, a brother-in-law and a nephew colluded to defraud him of royalties from one of the richest finds in the Haynesville Shale.

According to the lawsuit, Davis sold his share of the family’s property in the shale for $50,000, a fraction of what he claims is its true value. The lawsuit says Davis would not have made the deal if he had known that brother-in-law Elmer Prescott had already signed a three-year mineral lease with XTO Energy.

The second lawsuit seeks to overturn the property sale because it allegedly violated the state’s civil code. Under state law, the sale may be rescinded when the price is less than one-half of the property’s fair market value, the lawsuit says.

Holliday said the allegations in the lawsuits are false, even scandalously so.