Code Civ. Proc., § 772.040 · Article 3. Right of Entry or Occupation of Surface Lands Under Oil or Gas Lease
Code Civ. Proc., § 772.040
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
The court may render a judgment terminating the lessee’s right of entry or occupation of the surface and surface zone, subject to such conditions as the court deems fair and equitable, if the evidence shows each of the following:
(a) The document that created the leasehold interest was originally executed more than 20 years prior to filing the action under this article regardless of any amendments to the document. However, if any amendment was entered into expressly for the purpose of waiving, limiting, or rearranging surface rights of entry and occupation by the lessee, the 20-year period shall be computed as if the document were originally executed on the date of execution of the amendment.
(b) The subject land is not presently occupied by any of the following:
(1) A producing oil or gas well or well bore.
(2) A well or well bore being utilized for injection of water, gas, or other substance into geologic substrata as an aid to oil or gas production or to ameliorating subsidence.
(3) A well or well bore being utilized for the disposal injection of waste oil well brine and byproducts.
(4) A well or well bore being utilized for the production of water for use in oil field injection, waterflood, and pressure maintenance programs.
(c) Termination of the right of entry or occupation within the subject land in the manner requested by the plaintiff, or subject to such conditions as the court may impose pursuant to this section, will not significantly interfere with the right of the lessee, under the lease, to continue to conduct operations for the continued production of oil from leasehold strata beneath the surface zone in a practical and economic manner, utilizing such production techniques as will be appropriate to the leasehold area, consistent with good oilfield practice, and to gather, transport, and market the oil.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 1980, Ch. 44, Sec. 16.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CCP§ionNum=772.040.
- Text hash
- sha256 46e15c4a5271740143380ab77ef95d8105ca5a84b0c48534890822d046592fb4
- Composed by
- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.