Have any of you all ever been through a quiet title suit in OK?
My three questions deal with the lawyer fees of the opponents, past production, and suspension of payments.
1) If the Plaintiffs (the people who start the suit) “lose” the suit are they liable to pay the lawyer costs of the defendants? (let's assume it's not a “frivolous” suit but has some merit)
2) What about past production? If the defendants “lose” the suit do they have to scrape up the money to pay the plaintiffs for the “past” production fraction that the plaintiffs didn't get from day one? (We're assuming the plaintiffs never signed a DO, but were paid at a lower rate and that the defendents did sign a DO and they were paid at the higher rate, and the wells have only been production for a few years) Or is past production, just water under the bridge?
3) When the lawsuit is “commenced” are all payments frozen to all owners affected by the “clouded” deed? Or are just the plaintiffs proceeds frozen? Or perhaps the ones that the oil company chose to initially suspend, remain suspended and nobody else's are suspended. I don't know.
And I guess a fourth quesiton is: Where in Oklahoma can I go to see details of some actual quiet title suits? I'd like to see what steps are involved. I'd like to see how actual cases were tried, what documents were filed, who had to pay who, and the judges actual rulings. I've seen some Okla. journal entries for quiet title suits, but for these short journal entries there had to have been a ton of supporting documentation submitted. Is there any place I can see all the nitty-gritty details?
Thank you in advance!
Rob
o.t., I was at a place the other day where they strangely played the cotton eyed joe. I'd been gone so long, I actually cried. Take me back to Tulsa! Is Cain's Ballroom still there?