United States Second Circuit

In an action involving a dispute over the parties' oil and gas leases in which the district court granted summary judgment in favor plaintiff landowners and lessors and denied summary judgment for defendant Energy Companies, the following questions are certified to the New York Court of Appeals: 1) under New York law, and in the context of an oil and gas lease, did the State's Moratorium on the use of horizontal drilling and high‐volume hydraulic fracturing amount to a force majeure event; and 2) if so, does the force majeure clause modify the habendum clause and extend the primary terms of the leases?

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/31/2014
• Published 07/31/2014

Judges

• CARNEY

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel