Right To Strip Mine Must Be Explicit Indeed

On February 1, 2011, the Commonwealth Court issued an Opinion holding that a landowner does not have the right to strip mine in a public park in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, even where his deed grants the right to remove all coal in and under the land without liability for any damage to the surface estate or the support estate.  The Court reasoned that, in 1902, at the time of the original conveyance, strip mining was not employed in Pennsylvania or in the Allegheny County area.

Two of the five judges dissented, pointing out that Pennsylvania Supreme Court precedent tended not to limit the means of extraction if broadly stated in the deed.  The dissent wrote, "It is difficult to imagine a broader reservation of a property interest in coal."  In Pennsylvania, the right to extract minerals requires an analysis of each specific deed.  The Pennsylvania courts have interpreted a variety of language.  Here, a divided Commonwealth Court has held that the absence of an express reference to strip mining and a historical context in which strip mining was not present mandate the conclusion that the right to strip mine is not present.

A copy of the decision is available here.