This week, the Ohio Supreme Court issued key decisions on its pending Dormant Mineral Act (DMA) cases. The Supreme Court Announcement itemized the various decisions released this morning, which were further detailed in Court News Ohio . Only three cases received full opinions: Corban v. Chesapeake Exploration, L.L.C., Walker v. Shondrick-Nau and Albanese v. Batman, while the remaining cases were disposed of based on the authority of those three opinions.

Overall, the Corban opinion addresses the issues that were most anticipated by oil and gas lawyers around the state, finding that the 1989 version of the DMA applied a fixed look back from its effective date, and that it was only operative until its amendment in 2006. Critically, the Court also held that the 1989 DMA is not self-executing and that a surface owner was required to obtain a judicial determination of abandonment of a severed mineral interest under the 1989 DMA.  However, now that the 2006 version of the DMA has completely displaced any right to proceed under the 1989 DMA, only the 2006 version applies today.