The PIOGA Press
( by Megan Mariani and Nicholas Habursky)
The modern oil and gas industry is a complex and multifaceted operation involving significant upstream, midstream and downstream infrastructure. Well pads located on the surface are necessary to extract the oil and gas from the subsurface. A constantly expanding network of pipelines are required to transport the produced oil and gas from the well pad to places of market or refinement. This complexity requires a constant balance of property rights between surface owners and mineral owners and operators. One mechanism by which the parties balance property rights is through the use of easements. Easements can be created in several different ways, including through an implied easement by necessity which was recently addressed by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Bartkowski v. Ramondo, No. 60 MAP 2018, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 6100 (October 31, 2019).
Implied easement by necessity
Before discussing Bartkowski, it is helpful to understand the elements of an implied easement by necessity. In Pennsylvania, for an implied easement by necessity to exist, three elements must be met:
- Title to the dominant and servient properties were once held by one person;
- This unity of title must have been severed by a conveyance of one of the tracts; and
- The easement must be necessary for the dominant owner to use the land, with the necessity existing both at the time of the severance of title and at the time of the exercise of the easement. An easement by necessity is always of strict necessity and not a mere matter of convenience.
Claiming an easement by necessity involves inherent risks. …