Posted In: Litigation
Ohio Supreme Court Punts on Issue Affecting Many Ohio Oil and Gas Leases
on November 7, 2016
As I wrote last spring, the case of Lutz v. Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, Case No. 2015-0545, offered the Ohio Supreme Court the chance to significantly impact Ohio law on the calculation of oil and gas royalties. Parties seeking some clarity on that topic will be disappointed to learn that the Ohio Supreme Court chose not to decide the question presented, instead sending the question back to the federal courts....
Who Owns the Oil and Gas? The Ohio Supreme Court Finally Decides and it May Not be Who You Think...
By Christopher F. Swing on September 20, 2016
The profound legal implications concerning who owns Ohio's vast mineral interests (i.e., oil and natural gas) was decided by the Ohio Supreme Court in two seminal cases (Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, LLC and Walker v. Shondrick-Nau), interpreting and applying the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (the "DMA"). The DMA operates to "abandon" sub-surface mineral rights, in favor of the surface owner, in instances where the surface and sub-surface rights previously were severed. Under the 1989 version of the statute, as originally enacted, owners of oil, gas, and mineral interests were required to take some action to enforce or preserve those rights within a twenty-year period or the interests were "deemed abandoned." Under the 1989 DMA, therefore, the interests were deemed abandoned based upon non-use alone. The 2006 amendment, on the other hand, requires notice to potential mineral rights/sub-surface owners, and a mechanism for recording notices and affidavits, so that a potential mineral interests' owner first is made aware of any intent to declare those interests abandoned....