Abandonment of the Surface Destruction Test in Determining Ownership of Unnamed Minerals

In Moser v. United States Steel Corp., the Texas Supreme Court abandoned the surface destruction test for determining the inclusion on unnamed minerals in the severed mineral estate. The Court instead adopted the “ordinary and natural meaning test” and found that uranium was a mineral within the ordinary and natural meaning of the word. Thus, a severance of a mineral interest that included “oil, gas, and other minerals” would include uranium.