West Virginia - Oil & Gas / Mining

摘要

West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Establishes Distinction Between Common-Law "Mining Partnership" and "Partnership in Mining"; Parties Can Acquire Interests in "Partnerships in Mining" Without Satisfying Statute of Frauds In response to a certified question from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals held that a person can acquire an interest in a common-law mining partnership only by means of a conveyance that satisfies the statute of frauds, but a person can acquire an interest in a general partnership (as defined by the West Virginia Revised Uniform Partnership Act (RUPA), W. Va. Code §§,47b-l-l to -11-5) that is engaged in the business of mining and that owns and operates oil and gas leases, even though the person cannot produce an instrument conveying the interest that would satisfy the statute of frauds. See Valentine v. Sugar Rock, Inc., 166 S.E.2d 785 (W. Va. 2014).