Chosar Corp. v. Owens

This is an extremely important property case which, in my opinion, has been wrongly decided by the majority in a decision that could have dire adverse consequences for the Commonwealth. The basic dispute is over the mining of coal. The owners of 85 % of the coal in question want to mine. The owners of the remaining 15% of the coal do not want to mine. As the majority acknowledges, because of Code § 8.01-81, the dispute between the owners cannot be resolved by a partition suit. Thus, the owners are locked in battle with no way out. The result of the majority opinion is that the rights of the…