Searching for Heirs Under Ohio’s Dormant Mineral Act

By Mark Fischer

To facilitate the development of oil and gas production, the Ohio legislature passed, and then revised, the Ohio Dormant Mineral Act (DMA). The DMA allows surface owners of properties to use a statutory process to claim the oil and gas rights under their properties, even though prior owners had reserved such rights. Prior to claiming such rights, however, the current surface owners must make reasonable efforts to locate and provide notice to such prior owners.

Mark Fischer, who argued a key DMA case before the Ohio Supreme Court, examines this process and what should constitute a reasonable search for prior owners and their heirs. He encourages Ohio courts, when reviewing the reasonableness of a search, to look to the effective and readily available methods used by others in the industry to identify and locate heirs.

The article was published in the Steubenville Herald Star.

Guest column/Questions about searching for oil and gas rights

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Notice: This article is for informational purposes only. None of the information contained in the article constitutes legal advice. No reader should act on such information without first seeking legal advice from an attorney.