A State of Mind: Determining Bad Faith in Trespasses to Oil and Gas: A Call to Courts to Apply a True Subjective Analysis to Determine Whether a Trespasser to an Oil and Gas Estate Trespasses in Good or Bad Faith

Authors

Brian J. Pulito
Nathaniel I. Holland
Jon C. Beckman

Document Type

Article

Abstract

It has always been the law of trespass mesne profits to an oil and gas estate that a trespasser is liable for the value of the oil and gas that it has produced from the estate to which it trespasses. That value is determined after ascertaining whether the trespasser held an honest belief that he or she had the right to produce oil or gas from the estate upon which it trespassed. In those cases, the trespasser is said to have trespassed in good faith. Conversely, the trespasser acts in bad faith when it knowingly produces oil and gas without the right to do so. The rule is couched subjectively from the perspective of the trespasser and not from the view of a reasonable person in the same position as the trespasser.

DOI

10.37419/LR.V2.I1.2

First Page

53

Last Page

77

Recommended Citation

Brian J. Pulito, Nathaniel I. Holland & Jon C. Beckman, A State of Mind: Determining Bad Faith in Trespasses to Oil and Gas: A Call to Courts to Apply a True Subjective Analysis to Determine Whether a Trespasser to an Oil and Gas Estate Trespasses in Good or Bad Faith, 2 Tex. A&M L. Rev. 53 (2014).
Available at: https://doi.org/10.37419/LR.V2.I1.2