Garaas v. Continental Resources

Summary

The court held that the royalty deed unambiguously granted a 2% royalty on all oil and gas produced from the entire described tract, including the State-owned acreage, and rejected the district court's unsupported calculation adjustment. It also held that the existing findings did not establish whether the statutory safe harbor applied to Continental's withholding, required further consideration of the Trusts' accounting claim, and ruled that the Trusts—not Continental—were the prevailing party for costs and disbursements. The amended judgment was reversed and the case remanded for recalculation, consideration of withholding and accounting issues, and determination of the Trusts' recoverable costs and disbursements.