trespass
Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Co.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling that found an energy developer trespassed on neighboring landowners' property by extracting natural gas from their property by way of hydraulic fracturing without permission....
Western Watersheds Project v. Wyoming
The Tenth Circuit held that a Wyoming law that imposed civil and criminal liability on those who cross private property to access adjacent land to collect resource data violates the First Amendment. In 2015, Wyoming enacted a pair of...
Four Things You Need to Know About Courts’ Rejection of Clean Air Act Preemption of State Common-Law Claims
In two decisions released in November 2015, Merrick v. Diageo Americas Supply, Inc., and Little v. Louisville Gas & Electric Co., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unambiguously held that the Clean...
Western Watersheds Project v. Michael
A district court held that environmental and animal rights groups may challenge the constitutionality of two trespass statutes passed by the Wyoming legislature in 2015. Under the statutes—one imposing criminal liability and the other...
Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether
A district court dismissed Pennsylvania's public nuisance, trespass, and Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practice and Consumer Protection Law claims against various refiners, manufacturers, marketers, distributors, and suppliers of methyl...
Key Operating & Equipment, Inc. v. Hegar
The Supreme Court of Texas held that an oil and gas company may use a road on landowner's property to access its underground mineral rights. The company held an interest oil and gas rights under the landowners' property in addition to...
When the Law Is Silent, Trespassers W . . . : Law and Power in Implied Property Rights
In the magical world of Winnie the Pooh, Piglet lives in a house signposted “TRESPASSERS W.” The golden silence that follows the W allows Pooh and his friends to wonder about the sign’s meaning, which Piglet insists honors his...
Shoshone Indian Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming v. United States
The Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing Native American tribes' claim that the government unlawfully converted oil and gas leases on a reservation from one type of lease to another. The lower court...
Taylor Land Group, LLC v. BP Products North America, Inc.
A Michigan appellate court reversed the dismissal of a property owner's trespass claim against a prior owner of the...