The use of hydraulic fracturing in Ohio has led to numerous lawsuits among parties disputing ownership of oil and gas rights. The Supreme Court decided 14 oil and gas cases today.

The use of hydraulic fracturing in Ohio has led to numerous lawsuits among parties disputing ownership of oil and gas rights. The Supreme Court decided 14 oil and gas cases today.

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, has led to numerous lawsuits among parties disputing ownership of oil and gas rights. The Ohio Supreme Court today issued three written opinions regarding how to interpret the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (ODMA), and dispensed with 10 other cases based on two of three cases decided today.

In the lead case issued today, Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration L.L.C.,the Supreme Court ruled that the 1989 version of the ODMA did not automatically allow oil, gas, and mineral rights to be deemed abandoned and vested in a surface owner, but required the surface owner to seek a judicial decree that the mineral rights were abandoned.

The lead opinion written by Justice Terrence O’Donnell clarified that any attempt by a surface owner to merge the surface and mineral rights after 2006 had to follow the 2006 version of the ODMA, which requires providing notice to the dormant mineral owners of the attempted merger.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Paul E. Pfeifer wrote the General Assembly in 1989 passed a law that was “bluntly efficient” and required no action by the surface owner if the mineral rights owners did nothing for decades to preserve their rights. He also stated that requiring surface owners who claimed the abandoned mineral rights before 2006 to follow the notice requirement of the newer version of the law would be unconstitutional.

Corban Inherited Surface Property
Hans M. Corban acquired 164.5 acres of Harrison County land from his family, which had purchased it from the North American Coal Corporation in 1959. North American reserved the rights to the oil and gas underneath the property. The rights to drill were exchanged among energy companies for years without any activity until fracking started in 2011. In 2013, Corban filed his lawsuit to claim that North American abandoned its mineral rights years earlier, and that he was entitled to be compensated for the extracted minerals.

The Supreme Court rejected Corban’s arguments that the mineral rights automatically transferred to him, and that at no time before 2006 did he file a lawsuit to claim ownership of the mineral rights. The Court then determined the energy companies preserved their rights and do not need to compensate Corban.

Noble County Surface Owner First Tried 2006 Law
In a second fracking-related opinion released today, the Court applied today’s Corban ruling to reverse a Seventh District Court of Appeals decision to grant Jon D. Walker Jr. the mineral rights under Noble County land he purchased in 2009. In Walker v. Shondrick-Nau, Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor wrote the majority opinion that found the estate of John Noon instead properly retained the mineral rights when Noon followed the procedures to preserve them under the 2006 ODMA.

Walker initially attempted to use the procedures of the 2006 ODMA when he filed an affidavit of abandonment of mineral interests in 2012 in the county recorder’s office. But Noon filed an affidavit and claim to preserve the mineral interests with the county recorder and stated he had “no intention to abandon” his interests. Then Walker filed a court action claiming that the 1989 version of ODMA applied to his ownership claims and that Noon had lost his mineral rights years before the 2006 version took effect.

The Court concluded that the 2006 version of the law applied to Walker’s claim to the mineral rights. Under that version, Noon’s claim to preserve qualified as a “saving event” that precluded Walker from having the mineral rights deemed abandoned.

Belmont County Surface Owners Claim 1989 Law Controls
Lastly, in Albanese v. Batman, the Court again applied the Corban decision to conclude that Nile and Katheryn Batman hold the mineral rights under separate properties in Belmont County owned by Wayne Lipperman and the estate of James Albanese. The Court consolidated the two cases into one opinion and decided that Lipperman and Albanese did not follow the 2006 ODMA’s requirement to serve notice to the Batmans before attempting to declare their mineral rights abandoned.

Similar to the facts in Walker v. Shondrick-Nau, Lipperman and Albanese filed their claims for the rights underneath their land in 2012, but argued the 1989 law applied because the Batmans did nothing to preserve their mineral rights since recording a copy of the will of Nile Batman’s mother in 1989 that granted them her mineral rights.

Other Case Decided
The Court decided 10 other cases today by entries that cite Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration L.L.C., and Walker v. Shondrick-Nau, as authority.

Those cases are:

Along with the brief descriptions of the three cases, the Office of Public Information today released more detailed summaries of Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration L.L.C., Walker v. Shondrick-Nau, and Albanese v. Batman.

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