Sanders, Holden E.

English

University of Miami School of Law

University of Miami Law SchoolInstitutional RepositoryUniversity of Miami Law Review5-1-1960OIL AND GAS LEASES. By Earl A. Brown. NewYork: Mathew Bender & Company, 1959.Holden E. SandersFollow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlrThis Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Miami LawReview by an authorized administrator of Institutional Repository. For more information, please contact library@law.miami.edu.Recommended CitationHolden E. Sanders, OIL AND GAS LEASES. By Earl A. Brown. New York: Mathew Bender & Company, 1959., 14 U. Miami L. Rev. 499(1960)Available at: http://repository.law.miami.edu/umlr/vol14/iss3/15BOOK REVIEWOIL AND GAS LASES. By Earl A. Brown. New York: Mathew Bender &Company, 1959. Pp. 681. ($25.00)It is signally appropriate that the publication of Earl A. Brown's "Oiland Gas Leases" should coincide with the 100th anniversary of thepetroleum industry. From the crudely constructed rig at Titusville, Penn-sylvania, in 1859, grew a monstrous and vital industry, fighting competingindustries in the beginning, later the sanctions of a wary government andserving as the stamina for a likewise monstrous automobile industry untiltoday, through petrochemical and by-product subsidiaries it fairly pervadesour entire modem civilization.Like any infant industry it had its growing pains: it had its impacton the law and in turn was nurtured or restrained by the law. Thetechniques and art of producing oil and gas were matters of naturalphenomenon for the scientists to discover and utilize. The relationshipscreated by these sometimes global efforts and the resulting rights, duties,liabilities and responsibilities were matters of social law-law of thegovernment, of contracts, and of judges. The Sherman Act, State produc-tion controls, statutory sanctions- all of these had a great impact uponthe petroleum industry but if it can be likened to a huge industrialvehicle, surely the very wheels upon which it has rumbled down throughthe last century are the oil and gas leases. They are at once the adhesivewhich holds the industry together with its external elements such asproducers, landowners, governmental bodies and also the catalyst whichseparates from a stenchy, slimy liquid from the depths of the earth,profit, heated homes, national wealth, mobility to a mobile civilizationand a multitude of other useful products.The development of the lease and the law surrounding it has beencommensurate with the industry's growth. Undoubtedly, many attorneyshave lamented the fact that aside from Hornbook treatment of the generalfield of mineral law and widely scattered pieces of lease law in law reviews,legal writing specifically treating lease law has been woefully lacking. Untilnow there has not been a definitive work on lease law containing thepractical as well as the theoretical and embodying extensive forms."Find a need and fill it . .Mr. Brown has filled this need admirably well. He has taken thelease, severed it into its component parts and devoted whole, thoroughand pleasingly written chapters to every major clause. One of the manyfeatures that sets the work apart from the majority of technical publicationsUNIVERSITY OF MIAMI LAW REVIEWis the inclusion of highly important extraneous factors such as, in thiscase, Chapter XV, "Conservation Laws." Conservation laws become a partof the lease although not expressed and it appears to the reviewer thattoo often, textwriters narrow their work unduly by not devoting space tothose technically extraneous matters which have such a fundamental bearingon the subject. Happily, Mr. Brown has avoided this criticism.Chapter XVI (Implied Covenants of Development) merits particularemphasis for its negative aspect as well as its positive one. As the namesuggests, the implied covenant comes from without the lease - those rightsand liabilities imposed by judge made law in the process of stare decisis.Possibly no other part of mineral lease law has spawned as much bitterlitigation among parties and acid disputes between authorities as thesecovenants implied. In deed, the critical references in Chapter XVI toother writings on point have only added fuel to the fire of a running battleof differences on the matter of implied covenants. (See last year's TexasLaw Review articles by Prof. Meyer.) On the other hand, Mr. Brown's13-state coverage of the remedies for breach of implied covenant, hisobviously sincere intent to show both sides of the dispute and his generalthoroughness makes it an outstanding section of his work.The appendix deserves special mention. Here there are forms for almostevery conceivable phase of oil and gas operations in almost any Americanjurisdiction; from a multitude of various leases to geophysical permits andservice contracts. It seems inconceivable that one could wish for a formnot contained in it - division orders, royalty agreements, escrow agreements,farm-out agreements, bottom hole leases, mineral deeds, rights-of-way -theyare all there, characteristic of Mr. Brown's thoroughness.Added to these features of the book, Mr. Brown has written a thoroughlyenjoyable introduction around the terms and existence of the first leasein the Southwest dated in 1866, and at the end, a unique and useful index.The latter is line-headed by both cases and topics, the former sub-lined withthe point of the case.In a given field, a book such as this should be both so understandableand so thorough as to be useful and reliable to the general practitionerand specialist alike. I am happy to say that Mr. Brown's "Oil and GasLeases" meets that criterion. It is masterfully written and a reflection ofhis many years in the field. Its acceptance in a dynamic field of law isdoubtless assured.Member, Florida Bar[VOL. XIVHolden E. Sanders

OIL AND GAS LEASES. By Earl A. Brown. New York: Mathew Bender & Company, 1959.

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OIL AND GAS LEASES. By Earl A. Brown. New York: Mathew Bender & Company, 1959.

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