The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a...

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a brief with the Texas Supreme Court contending that Pennzoil violated federal securities laws in its alleged contract to acquire Getty Oil. The position taken in the brief would support a key point of Texaco’s defense in its multibillion-dollar court dispute with Pennzoil, although the SEC stressed it was not siding with Texaco in the case. Texaco is appealing a jury’s order that it pay $10.35 billion in damages to Pennzoil for wrongly interfering in Pennzoil’s attempted merger with Getty.