As a follow-up to our post from June, the Supreme Court of Ohio accepted the appeal in Swartz v. Householder and Shannon v. Householder, two related cases involving the 1989 version and the 2006 version of the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (DMA).
The Court will consider the following issues:
(1) whether the 1989 DMA is applicable after the effective date of the 2006 DMA;
(2) whether, under the 1989 DMA, the surface owner must have taken some action in order to establish abandonment prior to the effective date of the 2006 DMA; and
(3) whether the 2006 DMA operatives retrospectively and applies to severed mineral interests created before its effective date.
Both cases are held pending the Supreme Court of Ohio’s decision in Walker v. Shondrick-Nau, which concerns the same issues.