My siblings and I signed Mineral Deeds awhile back & after they dropped out of a future deal we checked on okcountyrecords.com & found out the grantee on the original mineral deed changed to a different company. It looks as though they took the first page of our deeds printed a new page with a different company and filed that of record. I’d appreciate thoughts & opinions on this. Thank you. CK
She said a mineral deed, NOT a lease.
If you were paid for the first deal, does it matter who you sold to?
If in fact this is what was done, I believe that falls under the definition of fraud. I’d check with a qualified lawyer who’s versed in such. I can tell you this… I would be actionably mad if some clown pulled a stunt like that on me.
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If she was paid on the interest that was agreed upon and the company used a different entity that they had, be a tough case to win in court for fraud. What exactly would you be suing for?
Misrepresentation. Holding oneself out as a certain person or entity with respect to a transaction, then editing a the document and placing it of public record is fraudulent behavior.
Why didn’t the dude simply file the true transaction, then file an assignment to another (if the document provided for same). This is done quite routinely.
Perhaps a qualified lawyer will speak to this.
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Im a retired attorney but still hold my bar card. You cant sue them as there would be no cause/damages, if youre truly that worried about this, you can contact the district attorney and present the case to him/her in whatever county the lands are located for criminal charges, which the DA will pass on since the grantee paid/closed the transaction
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Instead of changing the name on the deed, the purchaser could have immediately transferred the minerals to the different company. This is also called a strawman. Often companies use third parties to negotiate a contract. I’m with Bob77 that it would be difficult to prove damages. Not a case I would take. As for referring to the DA.
This post is not legal, tax or investment advice. Reading or responding to this post does not create an attorney/client relationship.
Do you feel like you sustained a loss of some kind as a result of this?
If not, why put your energy into something this? Just curious on your thoughts really…
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I couldn’t agree more that statutes state that “damage” of some sort has to be involved in order for this to be allowed to be argued in a courtroom, and with what has been presented by the original post, that’s not in the cards here. However, there are many human behaviors that are not necessarily illegal, but are unethical.
What I point out here is an ethical issue. In my view, this is simply unethical. If one can “make legal” inserting a substitute party into a contract after execution, then…
- perhaps at the wedding, the father who said yes to your marriage to daughter X could slip in daughter Y on you at the 11th hr, no?
OR
- as long as it’s cool to secretly change parties to a contract, what about that pesky 1/4 royalty shown there? Hey, it’s been 1/8 for so many decades, perhaps that will be fine also, no? (And, let’s remember, since this is all prior to the drilling stage, (ie, no revenue produced), no “damages” have occurred.)
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But none of that happened. Obviously the original poster was paid properly as she hasn’t responded otherwise.
None of what happened? I’m simply pointing out some analogous hypotheticals so as to make people think. I, (and I suspect many others), consider changing details of a contract prior to recording for public record is unethical.
If one wants to do a deal, then assign it to another party (if not specifically disallowed), - which happens every day of the year - then more power to them. That’s the stand up thing to do. Now their name is in the chain of title, and there’s an accurate record that reflects what each party had originally and actually intended to sign their name to.
Whether or not the original poster was paid what they were promised is beside the point. That’s irrelevant to the question of whether changing contract language prior to filing is a stand up thing to do or not.
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Most likely there are probably more things wrong with this deal than just switching pages in a deed, a right of way, or a lease. A big Red Flag!.