Opinion
No. 208 WAL 2022.
02-15-2023
DRESSLER FAMILY, LP, Respondent v. PENNENERGY RESOURCES, LLC, as Successor in Interest to R.E. Gas Development, LLC, Petitioner.
ORDER
PER CURIAM.
AND NOW, this 15th day of February, 2023, the Petition for Allowance of Appeal is GRANTED. The issues, rephrased for clarity, are:
(1) Whether the Superior Court's decision failed to apply how this Court defined the key Lease terms in Kilmer v. Elexco Land Services, Inc., 605 Pa. 413, 990 A.2d 1147 (2010), and violated the longstanding principle that custom and usage in an industry or trade is always admissible
to show that a contract is unambiguous.
(2) Whether the Lease unambiguously allows for the deduction of post[-]production costs is a key question to Pennsylvania's oil and gas industry, which needs the guidance this Court's review will provide.
(3) Whether the Superior Court's decision breaks from other courts that have interpreted materially identical lease language, and leaves Pennsylvania as an outlier in not recognizing the significance of common oil and gas lease terms.
(4) Whether the Superior Court's decision violated the longstanding principles set by this Court that, to be found ambiguous, a contract must be interpreted to give effect to all of its terms and be subject to a second reasonable interpretation.