Enter GRB, LLC v. Stull Ranches, LLC

GORSUCH, Circuit Judge.

When you own property in the West you don’t always own everything from the surface to the center of the Earth. Someone else might own the minerals lying underground and the right to access them. Someone else still might own the right to use the water flowing through your property. All this can invite confusion — and litigation.

Ours is such a case, a battle between ranchers and miners over property claims they trace back to separate government grants an age ago. Stull runs a grouse hunting business on its surface estate in rural Colorado. Entek leases from the federal…