Cases & Deals

NCL successfully challenges declaratory judgment and breach of contract action

Client(s) NCL Appalachian Partners, LP, NCL Natural Resources, LLC

Jones Day represented NCL Appalachian Partners, LP and NCL Natural Resources, LLC (collectively "NCL"), oil and gas E&P companies, in a declaratory judgment and breach of contract action brought by a surface estate landowner seeking, among other things, the termination and surrender of a lease in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. The surface estate landowner contended that the mineral lease should be terminated in part because of a retained acreage clause in the lease that required NCL to fully develop the entire acreage above and below the Onondaga formation. The surface estate landowner also alleged that NCL breached the contract by failing to provide free gas and to maintain the roads pursuant to a clause in the lease. NCL successfully challenged the surface estate landowner's standing because it did not own the oil and gas rights, which had been severed from the surface estate.

The 2008 Saltsgiver Family Trust et al v. NCL Natural Resources, LLC et al, No. 4:13-cv-03082 (M.D. Pa.)