Texas appellate attorney Ryan Clinton presented at the 50th Annual Ernest E. Smith Oil, Gas and Mineral Law Institute on April 4, 2004. Ryan presented on the topic “Estate Misconception & Presumed Grant: Navigating Mineral-Ownership Disputes after Van Dyke.” Ryan and DGC associate Laine Schmelzer also wrote a CLE paper on the topic viewable here.

The paper and speech presented a deep dive into the Supreme Court of Texas’s recent opinion in Van Dyke v. Navigator Group, 668 S.W.3d 353 (Tex. 2003). The Court’s landmark opinion substantially changed the rules for resolving mineral-ownership disputes in Texas. Ryan’s speech discussed what led to the Court’s decision, what the opinion means for current litigants, and what questions were left unanswered for us to litigate about for the next decade or more.