After more than two decades, at least one US federal court in
Texas has followed the view of Texas state appellate courts on the
limitation of the application of the exculpatory clauses found in
both the AAPL 1977 and 1982 model form operating agreements to
claims for breach of the operating agreement.
On February 14, 2014, the US District Court for the Southern
District of Texas, Houston Division, entered its order on a motion
to dismiss in MDU Barnett Limited Partnership v. Chesapeake
Exploration Limited Partnership, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18769
(S.D. Tex. Feb. 14, 2014). In doing so, the district court relied
on the Texas Supreme Court's recent decision in Reeder v.
Wood County Energy, 395 S.W.3d 789 (Tex. 2012), which was
determined to endorse previous Texas appellate court's limited
application of the exculpatory clause contained in both the 1977
and 1982 AAPL model form operating agreements, as held in in
Castle Tex. Prod. Limited Partnership v. Long Trusts,
