Client Successes

At Durham Jones & Pinegar, we are committed to providing excellent service to our clients. Matters we have handled for our clients include the following:

• We represented a client in a water law case in which we successfully argued to have the Utah Supreme Court reverse the decision of the Utah Court of Appeals. To do so, the Utah Supreme Court also had to overrule its own holding in a previous case regarding the character of water rights in Utah. The case also established the legal method of transferring water rights. Subsequently, the Utah Legislature changed the law by statute, without any adverse effect on our client.

• We successfully handled a challenge by the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, of a client's proposed acquisition of a competitor's assets. This made it possible to close the deal and open the way to the eventual creation of one of the largest world-wide businesses headquartered in Utah.

• We defended an international oil and chemical company in federal court involving claims in excess of $70 million. The case involved over 100 witnesses, thousands of documents, and took six weeks to try. The court ruled in our client's favor, granting damages of less than $400,000.

• We represented a tenant who was suing a landlord because the landlord changed the locks on leased commercial space. The landlord, in turn, was suing for rents due under the lease agreement. The court ruled in favor of the tenant, awarding the tenant treble damages and attorneys' fees in the amount of $650,000 and dismissed the landlord's claim for rent.

• We represented a client in a real property partition case involving a 30,000 acre ranch that included numerous parcels of property in three counties. We were successful in proceedings before a court-appointed referee and in having the court confirm the referee's recommendations.