Co-author Rusty Tucker

Contract construction cases are fact-specific, but one can take lessons of general application from all of them. Here are the takeaways from Jones Energy, Inc. v. Pima Oil & Gas, L.L.C.,

• In assigning an ORRI, it matters whether the parties intend to exclude production from a particular interval of a formation or from a particular wellbore.
• It also matters, when two documents relate to the same subject, which one will control.
• Courts rely on the grammatical meaning of words and phrases. If in doubt when writing or reviewing a document, brush up on your eighth grade grammar.

Caveat: If this analysis doesn’t make total sense (or, God forbid, makes no sense at all), it’s because the agreements are complicated and we don’t have the space to dive into them in detail. Focus on the takeaways.
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