Mr. Don Macpherson Jr.

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  www.dailybreeze.com/ci_9472058 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/3/2008    Last Visited: 6/4/2008  

  But Macpherson Oil president Don Macpherson and his attorney, Jim Bright, both denied this week that Hermosa made an offer at the meeting.
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  A judge in February ruled that Hermosa indeed broke its oil drilling lease agreement with Macpherson in 1998, six years after voters approved a ballot initiative banning present and future drilling projects in town.
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  "We've been trying for some time to settle this and they've been giving the wrong impression to everyone," Macpherson said."We're waiting for an offer."

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  www.dailybreeze.com/ci_8590426?source=rss_viewed - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/15/2008    Last Visited: 3/18/2008  

  > if(requestedWidth Don Macpherson Jr., president of Macpherson Oil Co. in Santa Monica, is suing Hermosa Beach for breach of contract. (Steve McCrank/ Staff Photographer)if(requestedWidth > 0){ document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.width = requestedWidth + "px"; document.getElementById('articleViewerGroup').style.margin = "0px 0px 10px 10px"; }
  
  Had everything gone as first planned, tiny Hermosa Beach's coffers might still be greased with a thick layer of black gold.
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  In 1998, the City Council - citing safety concerns raised by an independent environmental consultant - denied drilling permits to Macpherson, sparking the protracted lawsuit that has wound its way through the courts for nearly a decade now.
  
  The complicated battle has cost Hermosa Beach so far more than $1 million to fight, and persistent oil company President Don Macpherson Jr. millions of dollars to wage, according to his attorney.
  
  After years of legal wrangling, just weeks ago a Superior Court judge ruled that Hermosa Beach indeed broke its contract with Macpherson, and now owes damages.
  
  In the bifurcated case's second phase, a jury would determine how much Hermosa must ante up to the spurned oil company.
  
  "You'll have to pay something," said Sam Edgerton, a former city councilman in office when Macpherson filed suit against the city.
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  Don Macpherson Jr., who declined interview requests for this story, runs the business as its president and chief executive officer.
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  It was the trio's late father who first set his sights on Hermosa's oil field in the 1980s and moved Macpherson from his Bakersfield home to work on the deal.
  
  The company's patriarch died in 1999, about a year after Macpherson Oil sued Hermosa.
  
  And in some ways, fulfilling his father's dream has driven Macpherson, 55, to continue fighting Hermosa for a decade now, Bright said.
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  Just days after the ruling, Macpherson delivered a eulogy for a member of the company's board of directors, a close friend of his father's who assisted in the Hermosa Beach endeavor, Bright said.
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  Stop Oil's involvement in the case effectively ended a few years ago, when Macpherson let stand a 2001 appellate court ruling that Measure E could indeed block the project.
  
  Whether the Coalition was victorious or not, Hermosa Beach is now left on the hook for damages - and Fogg didn't downplay her role in helping the city into that position.
  
  "Oh, yeah," she said."I'll take full credit for that."
  
  Fogg, a homemaker, and McHugh, a real estate broker, both doubted that Macpherson would make much money off the city.
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  But Fogg didn't expect Macpherson to back down.
  
  "At this point, it's all about money," she said.
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  The city could be held for some damages to Macpherson - possibly the $100,000 the company paid to secure the lease in 1986, he figured.
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  Bright would only say that Macpherson has spent "millions" pursuing its claim on Hermosa Beach.

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  Appellate court overturns ruling on oil company suit... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/25/2005    Last Visited: 8/26/2005  

  "This is going to allow us to move on with the legal proceedings," said Don Macpherson Jr., president of Macpherson Oil.
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  "This is going to allow us to move on with the legal proceedings," said Don Macpherson Jr., president of the company.
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  In 1998, the city voted to deny Macpherson the permits based on a consultant's opinion that it would be unsafe.
  
  Later that year, Macpherson Oil filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract.
  
  In 2002, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Bruguera decided that the will of the people was stronger than the will of the City Council and held that Proposition E was an effective and legal end to a slant-drilling lease held by the Santa Monica-based petroleum company.
  
  Bruguera decided that the city did not breach the oil company's contract when it voted in 1998 to deny Macpherson the permits needed to drill for oil on land near the city's maintenance yard.
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  "All they gave us was lunch money for all the losses Mr. Macpherson has suffered," he said.
  
  Tuesday's decision may be a temporary victory for Macpherson Oil Co., but is one that lacks specific direction, said Rosamond Fogg, who was the driving force behind the Hermosa Beach Stop Oil Coalition, a group that opposed oil drilling and rallied supporters to pass Measure E.
  
  "I'm surprised the appellate court decided to leave so many issues open to the discretion of the trial court," she said.

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  CIPA Board Member Roster - California Independent... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/7/2007    Last Visited: 8/9/2008  

  Donald Macpherson Macpherson Energy Corporation SJ Division

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  CIPA Board Member Roster - California Independent... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/22/2006    Last Visited: 1/16/2009  

  Donald Macpherson Macpherson Energy Corporation SJ Division

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  CIPA Leadership - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/21/2000    Last Visited: 4/20/2002  

  Don Macpherson Macpherson Oil Company Immediate Past Chairman

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  Dist. Comm. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/3/2001    Last Visited: 7/6/2002  

  Don Macpherson, Jr. Macpherson Oil Co.

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  HBoil0510 (ran 5-10-01) - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/10/2001    Last Visited: 9/27/2006  

  Anti-drilling activist Rosamond Fogg on Tuesday said the Supreme Court decision sounds the death knell for the drilling project sought by Santa Monica oil man Don Macpherson Jr.
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  "He [Macpherson] could petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for review, but it is highly unlikely they would take it," Chatten-Brown said.
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  Macpherson, president of Macpherson Oil Company, was out of the country and unavailable for comment on Tuesday.He had asked the Supreme Court to review a decision against his slant-drilling project by a three-judge appeals court panel.
  
  That decision upheld Proposition E, a 1995 ballot measure banning oil drilling citywide.The appeals court maintained that the city government used its "policing" authority properly in voiding the oil contract, based on the public's vote
  
  Macpherson held an oil-drilling lease with the city when Proposition E was approved, and argued unsuccessfully that the measure violated the company's constitutional right to its existing contract.
  
  "There are implications not just for us, but statewide, because the ruling says that you can enter into a contract with a governmental body, and then it can be terminated by the actions of the government," Macpherson said following the appeals court ruling."Therefore no contract is a valid contract."
  
  Some observers have said that Macpherson may eventually collect financial damages from the city from a separate lawsuit he has filed, claiming breach of contract in the oil dispute.
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  Macpherson's 1992 contract authorized him to build a 135-foot high oil derrick, as tall as a 15-story building, which would be used for about four years for an exploratory and initial drilling phase.

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  Hermosa Beach News for 2005 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/9/2006    Last Visited: 11/8/2006  

  The city had asked the Supreme Court to review an August Appellate Court ruling that Macpherson "raised a triable issue" over whether the city must pay him and co-plaintiff Windward Associates the money they might have made if they had been allowed to drill for oil.The request for a review of that ruling was denied by the State's highest court Wednesday afternoon.
  
  Following voter approval of Measure E in 1995, which banned oil drilling in the city, the city cancelled a 1992 agreement with Macpherson to slant drill from the city maintenance yard to under the ocean.
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  In a special closed-door meeting last week the City Council decided to seek a rehearing before the state's Second Appellate District court in a breach-of-contract lawsuit by Santa Monica oilman Don Macpherson, said Mayor J.R. Reviczky.
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  The Tuesday ruling by the state's Second District Court of Appeal overturns a lower court decision from 2003 and reinstates a breach-of-contract lawsuit by Don Macpherson Jr. of Macpherson Oil.
  
  "It means that Macpherson wins and the city loses," Macpherson attorney James Bright said late Tuesday.
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  City Manager Steve Burrell on Wednesday agreed that the ruling allows Macpherson to press his lawsuit but said it also allows the city to argue in court that a voter-approved oil-drilling ban protects the city from having to pay damages."The City Council will receive a briefing in closed session Sept. 13, which is its next meeting," he said.
  
  In a written ruling the appellate court determined that Macpherson "raised a triable issue" of whether the city must pay him and co-plaintiff Windward Associates the money they might have made if he had been allowed to drill for oil, clearing the way for his breach-of-contract action in Superior Court.
  
  The appeals court ruled that the city acted legally when it barred Macpherson's drilling project in 2001 after Hermosa voters in 1995 approved Proposition E, which banned oil drilling.That part of the ruling supports lower court decisions.
  
  But the appeals court also ruled that Proposition E does not necessarily protect the city from paying damages suffered by Macpherson in the form of money he might have made.The appeals court stated that the question in front of the lower court would be whether the city or Macpherson would "bear the risk" of Proposition E's effect on his lease contract.
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  Specter of bankruptcy - Macpherson will look to recoup as much as $500 million, Bright said.
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  Bright said the courtroom victory comes after seven "torturous" years of legal wrangling over whether the city illegally breached Macpherson's 1992 lease agreement to slant-drill under the Pacific Ocean from property where a city maintenance yard now stands at Valley Drive and Sixth Street.
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  "I'm gratified for Macpherson and the Macpherson family," he said.
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  Macpherson considered taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but decided to let it drop.Only the money question remained.The full saga of Hermosa crude spans more than seven decades.

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  Oil company's lawsuit against Hermosa gets go-ahead - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/17/2005    Last Visited: 11/17/2005  

  State high court's refusal to review decision allows Macpherson to pursue $500 million in damages.
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  Later that year, Macpherson filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract.In 2002, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Soussan G. Bruguera upheld Measure E as an effective and legal end to a slant-drilling lease held by the Santa Monica-based petroleum company.Then again, the appellate court overturned that decision last summer.The city appealed to the state Supreme Court, which denied the appeal Wednesday.
  
  Don Macpherson, president of Macpherson Oil, said he is delighted with the court's decision and has instructed his attorneys to move as quickly as possible to take the case to trial.
  
  Settlement is always an option, Macpherson said.
  
  "But it's not going to be cheap for the city," he said.
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  "All they offered Macpherson was lunch money.
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  Councilman J.R. Reviczky said the city has always held the settlement door open, but "Macpherson never walked through it."

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