FIRST OFF . . .

CBS President Lawrence Tisch, who has a stake in the legal feud between Pennzoil Co. and Texaco Inc., had no influence on a recent “60 Minutes” segment about the Texas judiciary that coincided with the Texaco-Pennzoil case, CBS correspondent Mike Wallace said this week. Pennzoil attorney Joe Jamail claims the network purposely planned a news segment on Texas judges to air while the state Supreme Court was considering whether to hear the case. Tisch was a Getty Oil Co. board member during the merger negotiations--with Pennzoil and later with Texaco--that started the lengthy court struggle between the two oil companies. A Houston jury in November, 1985, found that Texaco derailed a planned Pennzoil-Getty merger and then purchased Getty for itself. Texaco originally was ordered to pay Pennzoil $11.1 billion, but that amount was reduced on appeal to $10.3 billion, including interest.