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Hon. Stacy Sharp
Judge · Seat 4B
Texas Business Court · Fourth Business Court Division (San Antonio)
Biography
Stacy Rogers Sharp sits in the Texas Business Court’s Fourth Division, which covers 22 counties in South Texas extending from the border south of Laredo to coastal Aransas County. Judge Sharp’s background in commercial litigation derives from her private practice as an appellate lawyer and trial-litigation consultant in civil suits that included contractual breaches, unfair competition, banking disputes, corporate-governance and fiduciary litigation, energy matters, employment law, and intellectual-property matters. She has long served on the faculty of the University of Texas School of Law, having most recently taught advanced writing for litigation. Her publications and papers cover the topics of fraudulent transfers, trade secrets, oil and gas litigation, business torts, rhetorical techniques for handling counterarguments, and the Texas Civil Participation Act. She is former president of the Federal Bar Association’s Austin Chapter and sits on its San Antonio Chapter’s executive board. A 2006 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, she was a Chancellor, a Teaching Quizmaster, and member of the Texas Law Review. She began her appellate practice at Baker Botts LLP after clerking in the Western District of Texas for the Honorable Lee Yeakel. Before practicing law, she attended Vanderbilt University and served as a math and science teacher. More recently, she served her community on the Board of Trustees for Alamo Heights Independent School District and on the State Bar's Child Abuse & Neglect Committee. After years of serving as a foster parent, she now enjoys volunteering with the National Charity League and Young Men's Service League.
Opinions by Judge Sharp (3)
Contract Interpretation Principles Govern Exclusive-Use Storage and Ship-or-Pay Deficiency Calculations in Crude-Oil Terminal Dispute
In DK Trading & Supply v. Wink to Webster Pipeline, the Texas Business Court granted partial summary judgment on cross-motions, holding that a terminal services agreement unambiguously requires exclusive allocation of two tanks for the plaintiff's use, that a ship-or-pay clause permits crediting all crude oil shipped when calculating deficiency payments regardless of payment method, but that claims for the earliest disputed invoices are barred by the plaintiff's failure to satisfy a contractual condition precedent requiring timely written notice. The decision applies foundational Texas contract-construction principles to resolve disputes over storage exclusivity, deficiency-payment calculations, and notice requirements in midstream energy agreements.
Course-of-Performance Evidence Inadmissible to Construe Unambiguous Oil and Gas Farmout Agreement
In May v. INEOS USA Oil & Gas, the Business Court of Texas struck post-execution course-of-performance evidence offered by mineral-interest plaintiffs seeking to prove a well-by-well payout calculation under a farmout agreement, holding that extrinsic evidence is inadmissible when contract language is susceptible to only one reasonable meaning. The ruling follows the court's earlier determination that the contractually defined 'Payout' is triggered only by an Earning Well and calculated based on aggregated cost recovery, not on a well-by-well basis.
Landfill Royalty Dispute Survives Summary Judgment on Contract Interpretation of 'Operated On' Property Language
In Arnold v. Blue Ridge Landfill, the court denied defendant's motion for summary judgment in a royalty payment dispute turning on whether contractual language requiring payments on revenues for "final disposal of solid waste in the sanitary landfill operated on the Property" encompasses disposal occurring in portions of the landfill not physically located on the Property. The ruling preserves plaintiff's claim that the royalty obligation extends beyond the strict geographic boundaries of the Property itself.