The question in Graham v. Prochaska: Did the grantors in a 1950 Texas warranty deed reserve a “floating” 1/2 royalty interest or a “fixed” 1/16th royalty?
The Deed
At issue were three provisions:
Suppose I own a large tract of land in the region of the Barnett Shale, the exclusive right to allow (or prevent) drilling on the aforesaid land, and a desparate need for funds. You have $19 million and the desire to exploit the minerals. I take your $19 million, and when you ask for permission
Co-author Ann WeissmannThe Dietz family sued several lessees for injunctive relief and restorative damages arising out of leases on two non-contiguous tracts in Acadia Parish. In Dietz, et al. v. Superior Oil Company, et al the trial court granted the lessees’ dilatory exceptions of prematurity and improper cumulation and dismissed the plaintiff’s suit without
The first step in successfully challenging the Keystone Pipeline: Choose a court that has jurisdiction. Mr. Bishop learned that lesson the hard way in Bishop v. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline.
Mr. Bishop lived in Nacogdoches County, Texas, when TransCanada attempted to negotiate an easement and pipeline right-of-way. Those negotiations failed and TransCanada brought a condemnation proceeding.
Schizophrenia : A mental disorder characterized by a breakdown of thought processes and by impaired emotional responses. Common symptoms include delusions, such as paranoid beliefs; hallucinations and disorganized thinking.
Somebody is crazy, or at least very, very wrong, about the hydraulic fracturing debate.
Earthquakes and Fracking
In the controversy over “frackquakes”, brave small-town citizens are
If the significance of a lawsuit can be gauged by the 23 lawyers and 10 firms identified in the opinion, Olympia Minerals, LLC, et al v. HS Resources, Inc., et al., is as noteworthy as Bush v. Gore, Brown v. Board of Education, and even Kramer v. Kramer
If you examine titles or read title opinions, this post is for you.
I was recently examining instruments for an East Texas title opinion when I came across an instrument that, at first glance, appeared to be an easement. Scanning the document, I saw the phrases “right of way” and “road”—leading
With apologies for being absent for a week, I ask you to ponder this question when you embark on a fight with the officers and directors of the energy company you own a part of: How does your subjective fear of harm factor into your right to injunctive relief? Not much, according to a Texas
Technology and innovation will resolve the issues, real and imagined, that confront hydraulic fracturing. I arrive at that opinion because of history:
Before 1914, France had three dozen airplanes, more than all other air forces in the world put together. Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia, Japan and Austria all had no more than four planes each
As promised in our last post, here is a state-by-state review of the Duhig Rule – who has adpoted it, who hasn’t, and who might.
Texas – Duhig v. Peavey Moore Lumber Company, 135 Tex. 503, 144 S.W.2d 878 (1940) was a Texas case. As a result, producing states have