Court Opinion

ID: 9676351
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:22:32.382501+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:47.916387
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the majority opinion. I write separately to observe that in addition to holding, as the majority notes, that documents conveying oil and gas interests are subject to the same rules that govern interpretation of contractual agreements generally, we have also held that oil and natural gas are generally classified as minerals [State v. Amerada Petroleum Corp., 49 N.W.2d 14, 78 N.D. 247 (1951)] and that a mineral interest is generally classified as an interest in real property [Yttredahl v. Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, 104 N.W.2d 705 (N.D.1960)]. Although the majority opinion does not reiterate those particular holdings of our law, I do not understand the majority opinion to be a refutation of those principles. Rather, notwithstanding that there is a substantial difference between a sublease and an assignment in the law of real property which could be applicable to oil and gas interests, I understand the majority to hold that in this particular area of oil and gas law a conveyance, such as the one in the instant case, *541will be construed as an assignment unless a sublease is clearly intended by the parties. This conclusion is a recognition of the obvious, i.e., although we generally consider oil and gas to be interests in real property, they have qualities and characteristics which make blind adherence to real property principles inappropriate in certain circumstances.