Acknowledging that its decision is “at odds with modern legal concepts” and may be viewed as “unduly harsh,” the Pennsylvania Superior Court nevertheless found that it was bound to strip the oil and gas rights to a Centre County property from the heirs of the land’s former owners who had reserved the subsurface rights when they sold the land in 1899 but failed to inform the county commissioners of the horizontal severance under an “arcane” and now-outdated tax assessment law from the early 1800s.
Herder Spring Hunting Club v. Keller is the latest example of how the natural gas boom in Pennsylvania has required contemporary courts to examine century-old land deeds through the lens of archaic law.
