State ex rel. Kerns v. Simmers

*432*104{¶ 1} In this original mandamus action, a group of landowners ("the landowners") seeks an order compelling the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management ("the division") and its chief, Richard Simmers, to commence appropriation proceedings to compensate the landowners for their land that was included in an oil-and-gas drilling unit. The chief issued an order requiring that a reservoir of oil and gas underlying multiple tracts of land be operated as a unit to recover the oil and gas. The landowners object to the order, claiming that it amounted to a…