North Dakota Pipeline Trespass Challenge Trimmed on Appeal

A crude oil company on Friday won its bid to get several claims dismissed from North Dakota landowners alleging a pipeline was unlawfully crossing their property.

The landowners’ “position as equitable owners of tribal land held in trust by the United States does not provide standing to bring this federal common law trespass cause of action,” the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said.

The plaintiffs—individuals with beneficial ownership interests in Indian trust lands on the Fort Berthold Reservation—filed their class action in October 2018 alleging that Andeavor Logistics LP was trespassing on ...