On June 3, 2013, the United States District Court for the
Middle District of Pennsylvania ruled on a gas well operator’s motion to dismiss
a landowner’s claims of trespass and conversion/misappropriation by the company.
Defendant operator Chesapeake and Plaintiff landowner Valley Rod & Gun Club
executed a lease that contained provisions allowing Defendant access to the Plaintiff’s
property, granting a right of entry, permission to construct a well pad, the
privilege to install and use roads, and utilize oil, gas and non-domestic water
for the storage of gas. Defendant and Plaintiff, disagreed on the location of
the well, and Defendant chose a location against the owner’s requests that
damaged the Plaintiff’s surface property. Defendant, via its sub-contractor,
utilized stone, fill, rock, trees and mulch on the Club’s property to construct
the access roads to the pad, without permission of the owner. The court
dismissed the trespass claim because the lease granted Defendant a right of
entry to the Plaintiff’s land, an absolute defense to trespass. The court
explained that the lease provisions privileged the Defendant to install and use
roads on the surface estate, and lacked provisions that restricted access where
the Defendant’s otherwise had a right to be. The court, however, denied
Defendant’s motion to dismiss the conversion and misappropriation claim. The
court explained the Plaintiff plead facts sufficient to demonstrate that the
stone, fill, rock, trees and mulch were not utilized by Defendant in sitework
incidental to the extraction of oil and gas, but rather in the construction of
access roads.
Written by: Garrett Lent, Research Assistant
Penn State Law, Agricultural Law Center
June 2013
