Opinion ID: 2831275
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Accommodation Doctrine

Text: A party possessing the dominant mineral estate has the right to go onto the surface of the land to extract the minerals, as well as those incidental rights reasonably necessary for the extraction. Tarrant Cnty. Water Control & Improvement Dist. No. One v. Haupt, Inc., 854 S.W.2d 909, 911 (Tex. 1993); Getty Oil Co. v. Jones, 470 S.W.2d 618, 621 (Tex. 1971). The incidental rights include the right to use as much of the surface as is reasonably necessary to extract and produce the minerals. If the mineral owner or lessee has only one method for developing and producing the minerals, that method may be used regardless of whether it precludes or substantially impairs an existing use of the servient surface estate. Haupt, 854 S.W.2d at 911; Getty Oil, 470 S.W.2d at 622. On the other hand, [i]f the mineral owner has reasonable alternative uses of the surface, one of which permits the surface owner to continue to use the surface in the manner intended . . . and one of which would preclude that use by the surface owner, the mineral owner must use the alternative that allows continued use of the surface by the surface owner. Haupt, 854 S.W.2d at 911-12. 5 To obtain relief on a claim that the mineral lessee has failed to accommodate an existing use of the surface, the surface owner has the burden to prove that (1) the lessee’s use completely precludes or substantially impairs the existing use, and (2) there is no reasonable alternative method available to the surface owner by which the existing use can be continued. See Getty Oil, 470 S.W.2d at 628 (op. on reh’g); see also Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Williams, 420 S.W.2d 133, 135 (Tex. 1967); Davis v. Devon Energy Prod. Co., L.P., 136 S.W.3d 419, 424 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 2004, no pet.). If the surface owner carries that burden, he must further prove that given the particular circumstances, there are alternative reasonable, customary, and industry-accepted methods available to the lessee which will allow recovery of the minerals and also allow the surface owner to continue the existing use. Haupt, 854 S.W.2d at 911-12. In this case the court of appeals’ decision turned on its conclusion that Merriman failed to produce competent evidence that he had no reasonable alternative method by which to continue his cattle operation. As to that element of the accommodation doctrine, a surface owner’s burden to prove that his existing use cannot be maintained by some reasonable alternative method is not met by evidence that the alternative method is merely more inconvenient or less economically beneficial than the existing method. See Getty Oil, 470 S.W.2d at 628 (op. on reh’g) (“We have not held, as some have stated, that the issue is a question of inconvenience to the surface owner.”); Williams, 420 S.W.2d at 135 (“[The surface owner’s] testimony that the road [the mineral lessee built] interfered with his grazing operations and was a nuisance to him is not evidence that the road was not reasonably necessary.”). Rather, the surface owner has the burden to prove that the inconvenience 6 or financial burden of continuing the existing use by the alternative method is so great as to make the alternative method unreasonable. Getty Oil, 470 S.W.2d at 628 (op. on reh’g).