Ultra Resources, Inc. a Wyoming Corporation and Williams Production Rocky Mountain Co., a Delaware Corporation…

Summary

The court held that the net profits interest continued to burden the leases identified in the governing contract after the Pinedale Unit contracted and terminated, and that plaintiffs supplied sufficient notice of their claimed ownership to trigger payment beginning in March 2006. It upheld the rulings that the non-operator defendants breached the contract but were not liable under the Wyoming Royalty Payment Act, while the operator defendants were liable for statutory interest and penalties after receiving notice. The court also held that the defendants could not challenge plaintiffs’ title absent an adverse ownership claim, reversing only any attempted quiet-title determination as nonjusticiable. Chief Justice Voigt, dissenting, would have held that the unit-based NPI terminated with the Pinedale Unit and that plaintiffs failed to establish ownership.