Springfield Elementary School v. Charles Montgomery Burns
Issue at hand: Can you gain a superior title to oil by drilling sideways underground?
Credit: Screenshot from The Simpsons, Season 6, Episode 25, “Who shot Mr. Burns? Part One’' (21 May 1995). 20th Century Fox/Disney.
In Season 6, Episode 25, Springfield Elementary discovers an oil well under the school grounds while the school’s janitor is giving a proper burial to “Superdude”, the deceased hamster of a school classroom. Flush with cash from the oil, Principal Skinner decides to rubber stamp the different requests made by students and staff including a crystal bucket for Groundskeeper Willy, a new cafeteria staff to replace the ones complaining about mice, a Tito Puente jazz class, chocolate microscopes, double guitars requested by Otto, and, naturally, more rubber stamps.
However, Mr. Burns shatters the school’s dreams by claiming the oil for himself by setting up “Burns Slant-Drilling Co.” Unlike Springfield Elementary which was planning to drill for the oil right below its property, Burns’s well accesses the oil well by drilling diagonally.
Also, Mr. Burns ends up beating Springfield Elementary to the pumping of the oil and is the first one to have a fully operational oil pump. After Mr. Burns pumps the oil, Principal Skinner briefs the school department:
Principal Skinner: “I’m afraid We’ve got no legal recourse against Mr. Burns and his slant-drilling operation. The oil belongs to whoever pumped it first.”
Legal Question: Does the oil really belong to whatever company pumped the oil first?
Result: Springfield Elementary wins.
Legal Background: Although Skinner thinks that Springfield Elementary would lose the case since Mr. Burns pumped the oil first, this is definitely not the case. This is a good example of how the law represented on TV isn’t always accurate.
In the United States, there is a general principle in property law that people, to a certain extent, have ownership of the territory above their land and below their land. This idea has been carried over generally into the area of mineral exploration. If a driller attempts to tap the minerals like oil that is located below someone else’s land (like Burns Slant Drilling Co. did), they may be liable for what is called a “subsurface trespass.”
A subsurface trespass occurs even though someone owns the land on which their oil well is located, but uses what is called directional drilling to access the mineral rights below someone’s else’s land. If someone is found guilty of subsurface trespass for extracting oil, they owe the amount of the oil’s worth that is extracted from the ground.
Here, Mr. Burns’s operation is a comically flagrant instance of sub-surface trespass. In the clip that is present, Burns’s hole is slanted in a way that he is drilling very far from the location of the well. As a result, Springfield Elementary would almost certainly win and would thankfully be able to afford the different items they so dearly need, such as chocolate microscopes and the musical stylings of Tito Puente.
