Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. v. Huffman, 227 W. Va. 109

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed an order directing the Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas to issue five well permits for development beneath Chief Logan State Park. The court held that a statute prohibiting the Division of Natural Resources from permitting commercial mineral exploitation in state parks, enacted after the parties’ 1960 deed, could not be applied retroactively to impair the deed’s reserved oil and gas rights.

Holdings

1. Section 20-5-2(b)(8) and its predecessor could not be applied retroactively to bar the requested permits because the statute was enacted after execution of the 1960 deed and contained no clear expression of retroactive intent.
2. The unambiguous 1960 deed reserved the Lawson Heirs' oil and gas rights and the right to develop those rights, subject to the deed's stated restrictions.
3. The DEP Office of Oil and Gas improperly relied on section 20-5-2(b)(8) to deny Cabot's permit applications, and the permits were required to be issued subject to the deed's restrictions and other applicable DEP rules.

Questions Presented

1. Whether West Virginia Code section 20-5-2(b)(8) precluded issuance of the requested oil and gas well permits for development of minerals reserved in a 1960 deed.
2. Whether the 1961 statute and its later recodification could be applied retroactively to modify the parties' contractual rights under the 1960 deed.
3. Whether the DEP Office of Oil and Gas properly relied on section 20-5-2(b)(8), a statute governing the Division of Natural Resources, to deny the permits.

Disposition

affirmed