Tyler Court of Appeals Addresses Subsurface Trespass, Expert Damages Testimony, and Bad Faith Pooling Claims

The Tyler Court of Appeals held that lessor Elton Goodwin possessed a legally protected ownership interest in the subsurface at the depth of XTO Energy's cased wellbore intrusion sufficient to support a trespass cause of action, but reversed the damages award as unsupported by reliable expert testimony. The court further ruled that XTO had no implied duty to prevent drainage from wells drilled on adjoining non-owned leased properties, and applied the voluntary payment rule to bar XTO's unjust enrichment counterclaim.