Here’s a strange one we don’t quite understand. Yet. Two weeks ago we brought you the news that a jury in a federal court had decided a group of Utica shale drillers, including Rice Drilling (now EQT), Ascent Resources, XTO, and Gulfport Energy, were not guilty of “unjust enrichment” by drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer that sits immediately below the Utica (see OH Drillers Win Case Against Landowners re Drilling Deeper). The very same federal court with the very same federal judge has just denied a request by some of the same drillers to throw out a similar case. In this new case (Honey Crest Acres v. Rice Drilling & Gulfport Energy), the judge is allowing the plaintiffs to proceed to make their case for unjust enrichment against Rice and Gulfport.
Here’s a strange one we don’t quite understand. Yet. Two weeks ago we brought you the news that a jury in a federal court had decided a group of Utica shale drillers, including Rice Drilling (now EQT), Ascent Resources, XTO, and Gulfport Energy, were not guilty of “unjust enrichment” by drilling into the Point Pleasant shale layer that sits immediately below the Utica (see 