The Pennsylvania Superior Court has ruled that an oil and gas lease between property owners and resource drilling companies was still in effect despite so-called “shut-ins”—periods of inactivity in which the lessee still pays the property owner.

A three-judge panel consisting of Judges John Bender and Deborah Kunselman and Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini affirmed an Armstrong County judge’s sustaining of preliminary objections made by defendants Snyder Brothers, PennEnergy Resources and Winfield Resources in the lawsuit filed by plaintiffs Donald Wilson, Shirley Wilson, James Wilson, Marie Wilson and Lara S. Wilson Shields.