Local Governments Continue to Fight States for Right to Govern Fracking
Under Van Dyke, deeds with double-fraction royalty reservations referencing “1/8” are presumed to reserve a floating royalty interest unless clearly contradicted. Defenses like waiver, ratification, and limitations cannot...more
If you are scoring at home, count Permico Royalties LLC v. Barron Properties, Ltd., as a win for “floating” in the fixed-or-floating royalty battles. Permico, successor to grantors in a 1937 Deed for a tract in Ward County,...more
Rhetorical Question: When will Texas be done with fixed/floating royalty cases such as Johnson et al v. Clifton et al? Rhetorical Answer: When scriveners of deeds that are open to eight conceivably plausible meanings...more
BlueStone Nat. Res. II, LLC v. Nettye Engler Energy, LP is another Texas case deciding whether language creating a nonparticipating royalty interest prohibited deduction of post-production costs. (Spoiler alert: it didn’t....more
When Winston Churchill used this phrase in 1906 in his speech to the House of Commons, he probably did not have in mind the construction of language contained in a deed. Nevertheless, terminological inexactitude in drafting a...more