Montgomery Trustee v. ES3 Minerals and Echo Minerals is another Texas fixed or floating royalty case. Before diving into the details, perhaps it’s best to describe the pattern the courts seem to fall into to resolve these...more
Scheming to find the most remote and inaccessible county in Texas (my vote is Yoakum but there is no paucity of candidates) in which to dish out Texas home-town justice to an out-of-state defendant? Consider Bauer and Braxton...more
We begin with a document-drafting tip: When reserving an interest in minerals, before cutting and pasting from your old document that would be yellowed and dusty if it remained in its original papyrus format, lawyers and...more
Regency Field Services LLC v. Swift Energy Operating LLC, draws one’s attention to the difficult analyses that should be made before bringing a subsurface trespass claim....more
Our sympathies go out to those in the oilfield services industry in Texas—it looks like you got a lump of coal. In Mesa Southern CWS Acquisition v. Deep Energy Exploration Partners the Houston Court of Appeals upended the...more
12/31/2019
/ Contract Terms ,
Liens ,
Master Service Agreement ,
Mineral Exploration ,
Mineral Leases ,
Minerals ,
Oil & Gas ,
Public Policy ,
Void and Unenforceable ,
Waiver of Rights ,
Waivers ,
Well Drilling
In Bradley v. Shaffer, Darrell, a beneficiary of a mineral trust established by his grandparents, purported to convey to Bradley his mineral interests that were subject to the trust and any interest held in trust that he...more
What does it take these days to get money from a Texas jury? Not much, it seems; in XTO v. Goodwin the trick was convincing a higher court that you should keep it....more
Riddle: What’s the difference between a hydrocarbon molecule and the underground structure which the molecule inhabits?
Answer: In Texas, you can own one and not the other, according to Lightning Oil Co. v. Anadarko E&P...more
9/3/2015
/ Hydrocarbons ,
Leases ,
Mineral Leases ,
Mineral Rights ,
Minerals ,
Oil & Gas ,
Subsurface Estates ,
Surface Estates ,
Tortious Interference ,
Trespass ,
Well Drilling
In Lightning Oil Company v. Anadarko E&P Offshore, LLC, the surface and 1/6 of the minerals of the Chaparral Wildlife Management Area is owned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 5/6th of the minerals is owned by the...more
Why am I always reporting on plaintiffs who wait too long to file their lawsuit?
In the latest Texas case, Trahan v. Mettlen, the Trahans sued in 2010 on a 2006 warranty deed....more
Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C. v. Hyder is another hair-splitting Texas decision about “cost-free royalties”.
...more
Johnson v. Finkle, from North Dakota, centers around the long-standing but oft-forgotten headache that is the Duhig doctrine. If you aren’t familiar, you should be. ...more
It was a triumph of hysteria over common sense, a thrashing of science at the hand of ignorance, capitulation to a small but loud minority of NIMBY protestors. The City of Dallas has passed one of the strictest drilling...more
Occasionally in my litigation experience I’m reminded of time-honored rules of law. Often I’m pleased, sometimes I’m not. So it was, I assume, for the parties in Midnight rilling, LLC v. Triche et al....more
The Title Question -
Harold Smith, the owner of Blackacre, and his wife, Wendy Smith, execute a deed covering all of their interest in Blackacre to Tiger Drilling....more
First, an admission and a regret: My June 6 post missed the 69th anniversary of an episode as significant as any in our country’s history: D-Day. ...more