On June 13, 2018, a federal district court rejected a takings challenge to a unit order issued by the Ohio Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management under the state’s statutory unitization law, R.C. 1509.28 The court found that “the statutory unitization procedure set forth in R.C. § 1509.28 operates to protect the correlative rights of landowners….and it was passed as a valid exercise of Ohio’s police power.” See Kerns v. Chesapeake Exploration, LLC , N.D. Ohio No. 5:18 CV 389 (June 13, 2018). Although the constitutionality of statutory unitization or its analog, mandatory pooling, is well-settled nationwide, Kerns is the first decision to squarely consider Ohio’s unitization law.
Click here to read the decision.
[Disclosure: Vorys represented Chesapeake Exploration, LLC in this case].