Texas Supreme Court Rejects Personal Production Requirement in Passive-Voice Habendum Clauses

The Texas Supreme Court reversed the El Paso Court of Appeals, holding that passive-voice habendum clauses in oil-and-gas leases providing that leases would continue "so long as minerals are produced from the land" did not require lessee Cromwell to personally produce minerals to maintain his working interest. The Court disapproved Hughes v. Cantwell and Cimarex Energy Co. v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp., applying the default rule against forfeiture of mineral interests where the habendum clauses did not clearly, precisely, and unequivocally require personal production by the lessee.