A federal judge has tossed a landowner’s suit against two drillers, including a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, saying the landowner failed to prove that the companies do not possess a valid oil and gas lease.

The ruling also touched on what appears to have been an issue of first impression for the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania: whether a party’s right to rescind a lease on the grounds of fraud transfers when the lease is conveyed to another party.