Oliver J. Sterling, Bank One, Texas, N.A., Intervenor-Appellee v. Mary Cobb Block, Individually and as of the Succession of Mireille Lebreton Cobb

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge:

This interlocutory appeal asks whether Davis Oil v. Mills, 873 F.2d 774 (5th Cir.1989), ce rt. denied, 493 U.S. 937, 110 S.Ct. 331, 107 L.Ed.2d 321 (1989), should be applied retroactively. Applying for the first time James B. Beam Distilling Co. v. Georgia, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 2439, 115 L.Ed.2d 481 (1991), we conclude that because the holding in Davis Oil was applied retroactively to the parties in that case, it must be applied retroactively here.

I

The basic facts are undisputed. Appellee Oliver Sterling, a New York resident, owned an interest in a…