Opinion
Nos. 07-4246, 07-4247.
Submitted October 27, 2008.
Filed: December 2, 2008.
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (D.C. Nos. 05-cv-00049, 05-cv-00332, 05-cv-00537), District Judge: Honorable Donetta W. Ambrose.
Robert W. Lambert, Esq., Bradley J. Martineau, Esq., Lambert Martineau, Indiana, PA, for Appellants.
Stanley Yorsz, Esq., Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney, Kevin C. Abbott, Esq., Nicolle R. Bagnell, Esq., Reed Smith, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellee.
Penneco Pipeline Corporation appeals the district court's grant of Summary Judgment against it, and in favor of Dominion Transmission, Inc., in this diversity action arising from a dispute over lease-hold interests held by Dominion under oil and gas leases with Penneco and its predecessors in interest. For the reasons that follow, we will affirm.
Inasmuch as we write primarily for the parties, we need not recite the rather involved procedural or historical background of this appeal. In an exceptionally throughly and persuasive Report and Recommendation, dated May 21, 2007, Magistrate Judge Lisa Pupo Lenihan, explained that even though the court was "not unsympathetic to Plaintiffs' plight and the seemingly inequitable result reached . . .", "controlling law", and the "unambiguous language of the DTY leases," "result[ed] in a finding in favor of the Defendants." Accordingly, she recommend that the defendants' motion for partial Summary Judgment be granted, and the plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment be denied.
By order dated October 3, 2007, the district court rejected the Plaintiffs' Objections to the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation, and entered judgment in favor of defendants, and against plaintiffs as to all claims.
We can add little to the thoughtful analyses set forth in the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation. Accordingly we will affirm the judgment of the district court adopting that Report and Recommendation, substantially for the reasons set forth by the Magistrate Judge.