Eastland Court Bars Lessor's Self-Help Burial of Lessee's Flow Lines, Reverses $30,000 Damage Award

The Eastland Court of Appeals reversed a $30,000 award to a successor lessor who hired a third party to bury Byrne Oil Company's flow lines after the lessee allegedly breached a lease provision requiring burial below plow depth upon request. The court held that self-help abatement was unavailable to the successor lessor, even though the flow lines remained property of the lessee as owner of the dominant mineral estate.