MINERAL RIGHTS INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE SAND AND GRAVEL.
The Third Department explained the meaning of mineral rights (as opposed to surface rights) as that term appeared in a 1917 deed. The court held that the term encompassed all inorganic material, including sand and gravel:
Supreme Court correctly determined as a matter of law that those mineral rights that plaintiffs owned and that were originally derived from a 1917 deed from a grantor, who was the common grantor of plaintiffs’ mineral rights and at least certain of [defendant’s] surface rights, included the right to extract and remove sand and gravel. The Court of Appeals has directly passed on the meaning of the term “minerals” as used in a conveyance and concluded that the term “will include all inorganic substances [that] can be taken from the land” where the term’s meaning is not restricted “b[y] qualifying words, or language, evidencing that the parties contemplated something less general than all substances legally cognizable as minerals” … . Thus, unless qualifying and restrictive language related to the term minerals renders the term ambiguous in any particular conveyance, the meaning of minerals is determinable as a matter of law and is not subject to extrinsic proof … . The 1917 deed conveyed a minerals estate that included “all . . . minerals in, under and upon” the specified properties together with the right to “dig, mine and remove” those minerals from the land free from any liability for damage. Accordingly, given that the language in the 1917 deed does not qualify or restrict the term minerals, the Court of Appeals’ interpretation controls. Therefore, as sand and gravel are “inorganic substances [that] can be taken from the land,” they fall within the mineral rights conveyed by the 1917 deed … . Champlain Gas & Oil, LLC v People of The State of New York, 2017 NY Slip Op 01610, 3rd Dept 3-2-17
REAL PROPERTY (MINERAL RIGHTS INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE SAND AND GRAVEL)/MINERAL RIGHTS (MINERAL RIGHTS INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE SAND AND GRAVEL)/SAND AND GRAVEL (REAL PROPERTY, (MINERAL RIGHTS INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE SAND AND GRAVEL)/MINERAL RIGHTS (MINERAL RIGHTS INCLUDE THE RIGHT TO REMOVE SAND AND GRAVEL)