Fracking Companies Lost on Trespassing, But a Court Just Gave Them a Different Win
A week after the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the property rights of landowners battling one natural gas giant, the same court tossed out a challenge filed by another group of landowners against a different natural gas company, reports Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The article, published on the website of the ABA Journal, is the product of a partnership with the Gazette-Mail, a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
The court on Monday upheld a lower court ruling that threw out a collection of lawsuits alleging dust, traffic and noise from gas operations were creating a nuisance for nearby landowners.
“In the property rights case last week, the justices set a clear legal standard that natural gas companies can’t trespass on a person’s land, without permission, to tap into gas reserves from neighboring tracts,” writes Ward. “In Monday’s case, the justices didn’t articulate a new legal precedent.”
