The following are recent Pennsylvania court cases of note to real estate law practitioners.

‘Dressler Family v. PennEnergy Resources’

In Dressler Family v. PennEnergy Resources, 2022 PA Super 77 (2022), Pennsylvania’s Superior Court held that a provision in an oil, gas and mineral lease that established the royalty due to the landowner to one-eighth of “gross proceeds received from the sale of gas at the prevailing price for gas sold at the well” did not allow the gas company to deduct post-production costs from the royalties owed to the landowner. Jacob and Charlotte Dressler hold title to certain real property situated in Lancaster and Connoquenessing townships, Butler County, Pennsylvania. In March 2007, they executed an oil and gas lease with William McIntire Coal, Oil and Gas. The terms of the lease permitted the lessor to drill wells on the Property and provided that the Dresslers would be paid a royalty of “an amount equal to one-eighth of the gross proceeds received from the sale of same at the prevailing price for gas sold at the well, for all native gas saved and marketed for the said premises, payable monthly.”