Over the last 100 years courts have developed a body of case law in disputes between lessors and lessees of oil and gas leases. Courts have held that certain provisions are “implied” in the contracts, even though there is no
Last July the Fort Worth Court of Appeals decided City of Crowley v. TotalEnergies E&P USA, Inc. Last week the Texas Supreme Court denied the City’s petition for review. Another case in which Heritage v. NationsBank has raised its ugly
The following is from Michael Curry and Jacob Rolls. Michael Curry is an Austin lawyer who served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas, where he got his law degree. Jacob Rolls, based in Driftwood, is a former public
On April 24, the Supreme Court issued an opinion in two consolidated appeals, Boren Descendants v. Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd., and Mabee Ranch Royalty Partnership LP v. Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd. I wrote about the Eastland Court of
On March 3, 2026, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Fasken v. Puig, No. 24-1033. It reversed the courts below and held that the words “free of all costs” in a reservation of a non-participating royalty interest
The only three essential terms of an oil and gas lease are the granting clause, including a description of the property, the habendum clause, which defines the term of the lease, and the royalty clause. The following would be a
On December 2, 2025, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Clifton v. Johnson, No. 23-067. This is the first Supreme Court case on fixed vs. floating since its decision Van Dyke v. The Navigator Group, 668 S.W.3d
The Corpus Christi Court of Appeals, in Devon Energy Production Co. v. Robert Leon Oliver, No. 13-25-00131-CV, has reversed a $9 million judgment against Devon in a suit for failure to pay royalties in accordance with Oliver’s leases. The
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After the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Van Dyke v. The Navigator Group, 668 S.W.3d 363 (Tex. 2023), setting out presumptions to apply when construing royalty conveyances and reservations that contain so-called double fractions, it considered Thompson’s petition
