Monday, March 1, 2021
Glacier Park Iron Ore Properties, LLC, Appellant vs. United States Steel Corporation, Respondent – Case No. A19-1923: In 2010, respondent United States Steel Corporation and the Great Northern Iron Ore Properties Trust entered into a consolidated lease that authorized U.S. Steel to mine on land owned by the Trust until 2057. The trust terminated and some of its assets, including mineral leases, were transferred to appellant Glacier Park Iron Ore Properties, LLC.
In 2019, Glacier Park served an arbitration demand on U.S. Steel, claiming the trustees of the trust had breached fiduciary duties when negotiating the lease and that U.S. Steel aided and abetted that breach. The arbitration clause in the lease provides for arbitration of “any disagreement or controversy . . . between Lessor and Lessee as to whether any of Lessee’s mining practices conform to the standards stipulated herein, or as to any fact that might affect the determination of royalty pay