# Independent Oil & Gas Ass'n v. Board of Assessment Appeals

> Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania · July 13, 2001 · 780 A.2d 795

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9649377

## Case

- **Full name:** INDEPENDENT OIL AND GAS ASSOCIATION OF PENNSYLVANIA, George O. Scott, D/B/A Dorso Energy, Lomak Resources Company, Phillips Production Company, Inc., Castle Exploration Company, Inc., Douglas Oil & Gas, Inc., Oil & Gas Management, Inc. and William S. Burkland, Appellants, v. BOARD OF ASSESSMENT APPEALS OF FAYETTE COUNTY, Pennsylvania, and County of Fayette, Pennsylvania
- **Court:** Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** July 13, 2001
- **Citations:** 780 A.2d 795; 149 Oil & Gas Rep. 545; 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 515
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Colins
- **Judges:** Doyle, Colins, Smith, Pellegrini, Friedman, Kelley, Leadbetter
- **Cited by:** 2 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9649377

## Opinion text

COLINS, Judge,
Dissenting.
I must respectfully dissent from the erudite opinion of the majority.
As correctly noted by the majority, the General Assembly explicitly recognized the taxing of coal interests as part of the real estate. However, as also was correctly noted, while oil and gas are minerals, unlike coal, they are fugacious in nature. It is possible for an owner of adjacent land to extract oil and gas reserves which lay beneath another’s real estate without ever entering upon the neighboring land.
What Fayette County has enacted is a de facto tax on oil and gas royalty rights without any legislative authority. Only the General Assembly may authorize a taxing scheme for non-producing oil and gas interests, and it has clearly chosen not to do so.
Therefore, the order of the Court of Common Pleas of Fayette County must be reversed.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9649377. Public record. Not legal advice.