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Property Keyed to French
Briggs v. Southwestern Energy Production Co.
Citation:
224 A. 3d 334 (Pa. 2020)Facts
The Briggs owned approximately eleven acres in Harford Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, which they had not leased for natural gas production. Southwestern Energy leased adjacent property for natural gas extraction and maintained wellbores on that property. Southwestern used hydraulic fracturing to enhance natural gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale formation through those wellbores. In November 2015, the Briggs filed a complaint alleging that Southwestern was extracting natural gas from beneath their property without permission, constituting trespass and conversion. Southwestern denied drilling underneath the Briggs’ property or physically intruding upon it, asserting that it had only drilled on properties for which it had leases. Southwestern argued that the rule of capture barred the Briggs’ claims. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Southwestern, but the Superior Court reversed, holding that the rule of capture may not apply when hydraulic fracturing is used.
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