The state Supreme Court has decided there is no need for a scientific debate over whether shale and the natural gas contained within it fall under the definition of "minerals" for the purposes of deed reservations.
Instead, the justices said, the Dunham rule, named after the 1882 Supreme Court case Dunham and Shortt v. Kirkpatrick, requires courts interpreting deed reservations that do not specifically mention shale or natural gas and where there exists no parol evidence to suggest the parties intended to include shale or natural gas to rely only on the layperson’s understanding of what a mineral is: a substance of a metallic nature.
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