This post and related article was also written by Michael Joy and Robert Jochen.
In an article that appears in The Legal Intelligencer, the authors discuss the significant impact that will result from a successful PA Supreme Court appeal of the lower court decisions surrounding Shedden v. Anadarko E & P Co., L.P., 88 A.3d 228 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2014).
The Court’s decision will have far-reaching implications for the constantly evolving relationship between landowners and oil/gas producers in the Commonwealth. The legal issues before the Supreme Court include the enforceability and effect of Mother Hubbard Clauses and the doctrine of estoppel by deed. This appeal has the potential to not only change more than 100 years of settled law, but to disrupt the long-standing paradigm of using Mother Hubbard Clauses in oil and gas leases to address the very issues now before the Supreme Court.
The full text of the article can be found here.