I was contacted by a landman with an offer to lease some inherited mineral rights in TX.
When my grandma died in 1945 her will filed in Oklahoma indicated it was 50.5 acres, but the landman said they are relying on some court documents from a civil case in 1925 involving the land indicating my grandma was granted only ~44.45 acres with the remaining acres allocated to her brother and another family member. I have copies of grandma’s will and the 1925 court order that the landman sent.
Not sure what happened between 1925 and 1945 and why my grandma would have thought she owned 50+ acres if she did not. Probate documents for my parents continue to refer to it as “an undivided 1/10th mineral interest in 50 acres in Cooke County, Texas, described as: 55.5 acres of land out of Lot No…” Even in that description, there appears to be a discrepancy, right?
Due to this being passed on to multiple descendants over the years, my interest is only 1/20 so I am not sure this is worth pursuing. This process is unfamiliar and I do not not live in Texas, so do not have ready access to courthouse records.
What would you suggest?
Land Survey methods back in 1925 were not very good. New GPS methods are way more accurate.
Generally legal descriptions are carried forward, at least until it is discovered that they are not accurate. So you would need a survey of the legal description in light of the entire tract acreage. It may be that there was an misunderstanding of the court decision and it will depend on the true acreage and the language of the court decision. Did the court determine the exact number of acres in the entire tract by a survey? Or did the court simply award 5.5 acres to relatives X,Y & Z, leaving Grandma with the remaining acres in the overall tract? If there was a survey measuring 50 acres, then Grandma would own 44.5 acres, being 50 acres less the 5.5 acres carved out. If the survey measured 55 acres, then Grandma would own 50.5 acres, being 55 acres less the 5.5 carved out. If there was not a survey, then the court would have held that 5.5 acres were carved and that Grandma owned whatever net acres were left. By the way, if a modern survey shows that the true tract size is greater or smaller than these figures, then X, Y & Z will still own 4.5 acres, with Grandma’s heirs owning the resulting increase or decrease in acreage. The oil and gas lease will describe the minerals as XX gross acres, more or less, and so will cover all over or under acreage. So from a leasing perspective, it does not matter if it is 50 acres less 4.5 acre or 55 acres less 4.5 acres. From your perspective, if the oil company does not perform a survey and uses “called” acreage, then the difference of 1/20 X 4.5 = 0.225 NMA afffects your net royalty decimal. And affects your bonus too. So review the final court order carefully.
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