As the Texas Supreme Court noted recently, it is the responsibility of mineral owners to review their deeds carefully to ensure that the rights and reservations in the deed are what they intend and that there are no mistakes. Specifically, in Cosgrove v. Cade, the Court held that “Plainly obvious…
Texas Oil and Gas Attorney Blog
Oil Production Continues in the Delaware Basin in Texas
Good news for royalty owners in the Delaware Basin in West Texas. The Delaware Basin is a geologic formation that is well known for holding large oil fields. Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas and Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico are located within the Delaware Basin. The Delaware…
Texas Fifth Circuit Court Addresses Easement of Necessity Requirements
It is not uncommon in Texas for a landowner, for example, someone who has inherited property, to find that the property is landlocked and without access to a public road. Sometimes access to the landlocked property is offered by a friendly neighbor. However, in the absence of an adjoining property…
Texas Supreme Court: the Texas Accommodation Doctrine Applies to Groundwater
Last year, the Texas Supreme Court decided the case of Coyote Lake Ranch, LLC v. City of Lubbock that dealt with whether the “accommodation doctrine” should be applied to groundwater. The accommodation doctrine is actually an oil and gas doctrine, which states that absent an agreement to the contrary, an…
Alleged Fraud on Texas Oil & Gas Investors
Earlier this week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Chris Faulkner, his company, Breitling Energy Corporation and several other parties for defrauding investors. The complaint filed by the SEC can be reviewed here. The SEC Complaint alleges that the Defendants intentionally and repeatedly misled purchasers of working interests regarding…
Texas Supreme Court Holds Harris County Did Not Take Homeowners’ Property With Flooding in Harris County Flood District and Harris County v. Kerr et al.
In a case that many Texas landowners have been following closely through the courts, the Texas Supreme Court recently published a decision concerning whether a county can be held liable for an impermissible taking of property when the county allows for land development that the county knows will cause substantial…
Texas Trial Courts Can Decide on Jurisdiction During Condemnation Proceedings
The Texas Supreme Court recently decided an important eminent domain case in In Re Lazy W District No. 1, Relator. Specifically, the Court decided that the trial court must consider whether the court has jurisdiction over a proceeding as quickly as possible in a case, and need not wait on the…
Building A Pond On Your Own Property and the EPA Will Get You!
You wouldn’t think that building a stock pond on your own property would be something that requires the approval of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would you? One unsuspecting family in Wyoming found out just how far the EPA was willing to go in an effort to “protect…
Texas Landlords Liability for the Criminal Acts of Tenants Gets Muddier
Most Texas landlords realize that when they rent to a tenant with a criminal history, the landlord may be held liable for criminal acts committed by that tenant. Texas Property Code Section 92.025 provides that a tenant cannot sue a landlord solely for leasing to a tenant convicted of, arrested…
Earthquakes and Fracing in Texas
Fracing, or hydrofracturing, is a natural gas extraction technique by which a liquid solution (primarily made up of water) is pumped into the ground at high pressures to fracture rock formations. Fracturing the rock releases gas that is trapped inside the rock formation. The geological areas where natural gas is…