MINARD RUN OIL CO. V. UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE

• Published in: The Harvard environmental law review : HELR 2012-01, Vol.36 (2), p.567-598
• Main Author: Thrope, J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Indexing in process
• ISSN: 0147-8257

Minard Run Oil Co. v. United States Forest Service super(1) (Minard Run II) presents a traditional story with a unique cast of characters. The common law has long established that within a single parcel of property, the surface and the minerals can be separately owned. super(2) Where property has been so divided into a "split estate," the law presumes that the mineral estate is dominant; unless the deed severing the property provides otherwise, an implied easement burdens the surface estate, permitting the mineral owner to use the surface as may be reasonably necessary to access the minerals. super(3) Minard Run II provides a twist on this common split estate arrangement -- it asks what happens when a private party owns the minerals of a split estate and the federal government owns the surface. Specifically, in Minard Run II private mineral owners sought access to oil and gas through surface owned by the federal government and included in a national forest. The case explores the extent to which the U.S. Forest Service, as the land management agency with jurisdiction over the surface, could regulate this surface access. Minard Run II ultimately holds, perhaps surprisingly, that the Forest Service had no regulatory authority beyond what a private surface owner would have in an analogous situation. This constraining outcome, however, was not the result of a flawed opinion, but instead an unexpectedly restrictive statute.