Kansas - Oil & Gas

摘要

Federal Circuit Determines Whether Kansas Landowners Granted the "Fee" or an "Easement" in Conveyances to Railroad Among the basic tasks a mineral lawyer undertakes is determining who has the right to lease or develop minerals. The holder of an "easement" has the right to use the land for the purposes stated in the easement. Absent express language in the easement document, the owner of the land burdened by the easement retains the balance of rights, including title to the oil and gas beneath the easement. See generally Great Northern Ry. Co. v. United States, 315 U.S. 262,271-72 (1942) (under the General Railroad Right-of-Way Act of 1875, 43 U.S.C. §§ 934-939, railroad received an easement and the federal government retained the oil and gas, and all other rights).