In what attorneys said is a significant win for natural gas drillers, the Commonwealth Court has ruled that counties’ recorders of deeds are required by statute to record all lease documents presented to them, including single documents containing multiple lease assignments.
Kevin C. Abbott of Reed Smith in Pittsburgh, who represented plaintiff Chesapeake Appalachia, said the ruling is important for oil and gas companies in Pennsylvania, many of which have incurred significant additional expenses and had to perform extra work as a result of some county recorders’ refusal to accept multiple lease assignments in a single document.
