Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

T. Boone Pickens|Settles With His Son

DALLAS (CN) - On the eve of trial Monday, billionaire T. Boone Pickens settled an ugly family dispute in which his son claimed he was owed millions of dollars for a share of an energy company.

Michael O. Pickens sued his father in November 2014, claiming his dad failed to pay $15.1 million worth of interests in energy companies for which Michael worked.

Michael claimed he was promised a salary and 7.6 percent interest in Mesa Prime Partners if he took a job at Primess Energy Partners LP in 2010, among other things.

Pickens fired back, accusing Michael of scheming "to extort $20 million" from him and of needing money "due to a lifetime of failed career choices and substance abuse problems." Pickens accused his son of "using Internet posts falsely accusing his father of inflicting abuse on Mike Pickens as a child and casting his siblings as failures and addicts," according to his December 2014 answer and counterclaim.

State District Judge Tonya Parker ordered father and son into mediation during jury selection Monday, resulting in the settlement. The trial was expected to last up to seven days.

Pickens' attorney did not respond to an email message asking for comment late Tuesday evening.

His son's attorney, Thomas Bowers in Dallas, said the terms of the settlement are confidential and the parties "are moving on with their lives."

When asked about the possibility of a reconciliation, Bowers said "anything in life is possible."

"Maybe they can someday get past their differences, it is possible," Bowers said Wednesday. "I would hope for that." Pickens and his family had anonymously filed privacy claims against Michael in February 2013 over the online posts of alleged abuse.

Pickens said in his later counterclaims that the family voluntarily dismissed that lawsuit to separate him from his son's "crazy antics and behavior, which seemed to only be encouraged by being in litigation."

Follow @davejourno
Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...