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<br />Colorado. The Supreme Court found that the defendant had not <br />obtained permission from the owner of the mineral estate, and was <br />thereby liable for geophysical trespass to plaintiff even though <br />defendant had obtained permission from the surface owner of the <br />estate. <br />In that case, the plaintiff was the holder of an <br />unrecorded coal lease of which defendant had no knowledge. <br />Defendant sough[ protection pursuant to the Colorado Recording <br />statute, 38-35-109(1), since plaintiff's coal lease was unrecord- <br />ed. The Supreme Court held that since defendant had not obtained <br />permission from the owner of [he mineral estate, the State of <br />Colorado, it was liable to the plaintiff even though plaintiff's <br />coal lease was unrecorded. Frankly, in a rather strained inter- <br />pretation, found, at page 238 of the opinion, the Court found <br />that defendant had no rights protected pursuant to the recording <br />statute since the defendant did not attempt or obtain permission <br />from the owner of the mineral estate. At the time, the Colorado <br />recording statute was merely a notice statute but was amended in <br />1984 to specifically provide that the recording statute is now a <br />race-notice statute as declared in Nile Valley Fed. S & L v. <br />Security Title, 813 P.2d 849 (Colo. App. 1991). I[ would appear <br />the results of the Grvnbera case might be different under today's <br />standards, however, for purposes of this order, the discussion of <br />the Supreme Court at page 234 regarding the difficulties of <br />separate ownership of the surface and mineral estates is impor- <br />tant. <br />The Supreme Court stated, at page 234 of Grvnbera, <br />suara: "Separate ownership of the surface and mineral estates <br />create obvious tensions in attempting to assure full use of each <br />estate without injuring the other. The broad principle by which <br />these tensions are to be resolved is that each owner must have <br />due regard for the rights of the other in making use of the <br />estate in question." The court does not declare how this broad <br />principle is to be implemented, but at the trial court level, it <br />appears to be implemented by lawsuits. <br />Ascertaining the intent of the parties as required by <br />Ferrell can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, in many <br />cases, and particularly in light of CRS 73 38-35-109(1) regarding <br />notice. The Supreme Court stated in Grvnber~ that the "we have <br />described the general purposes of recording acts to include the <br />'protection for purchasers of real property against the risk of <br />prior secret conveyances by the seller,' and have said that one <br />purpose is to 'permit a purchaser to rely on the condition of <br />title as it appears of record. "' It is extremely crucial that <br />subsequent purchasers of real estate, or interests therein, <br />whether surface, subsurface, water or mineral rights, be able to <br />rely on the condition of title as it appears of record. Since <br />each case involving a straight mineral reservation turns upon the <br />intent of the parties at the time of execution of the deed <br />13 <br />