Brad, if you signed nothing that says how much acreage you have, you need a good lawyer who may very well be able to go to the judge and get your account unfrozen. I think the freezing of your account may not have been accomplished if your side was heard. I think it was a bullying tactic. I am sorry I can't recommend a lawyer in Ok.
Brad,
Where else do you bank? You should have your banker contact the other bank. I would also get that deed to the authorities as soon as possible.
Your "Exhibit A" does not warranty title to the minerals supposedly leased by you, but I cannot recall having seen a Warranty of Title clause in the Exhibit, it is usually in the main document.
Tom Ed Moore said:
While I was overseas for ten weeks last fall, my wife executed a lease from Continental. It was already leased by them a few months earlier. They wanted a refund. Bottom line, my wife bought a late model Mercedes for our son's graduation with the bonus and my "Exhibit A" does not warrant leases.
Tom
Well if you are in violation of the Warranty of Title clause simply because there is no Mineral Deed from your stepmother to you, then why not just give the Plaintiff what he wants? Have stepmother sign the Mineral Deed, give her some of the proceeds, show up in Court with original Mineral Deed, tell judge you will file the Mineral Deed if judge will unfreeze account, dismiss case with prejudice, and award you attorney's fees? Seems alot quicker, easier, and less expensive than making lawyers rich.
R. W., from the comment below, it appears that Brad did state that he owned "ALL interest in those sections," and was not just conveying whatever interest he owned at that time. So I think he is on the hook for the Warranty of Title clause. When I leased my city lot, I asked for Lessee to remove that clause, or accept a Special Warranty of Title Clause only, but they refused to go along. I went ahead and signed the lease, figuring if they were wrong I was on the hook for only about $350, my bonus consideration. But Brad is operating at a much higher level. No, a mineral owner should not offer a general warranty of title to this much acreage (unless perhaps he has a title policy).
Brad Cordis said:
It wasnt Ferrell I was refering to, Joe. They ARE slow to close however they have always done me right. And the contract didntHave acreage specifics. It only states ALL interest in those sections.
Pete, I believe that we are only talking about 90 mineral acres here, so it could not possibly be the entire section/s. Since he had no right to sell his stepmothers minerals, all would be his personally owned minerals, everything he had right and title to, possibly including anything he came into posession of in the future if the language was crafted that way. The language I've seen so far does not obligate him to obtain his stepmothers mineral interest to convey to the buyer. I'm going to assume that the buyer crafted the contract and thus should be interpreted in the sellers favor. Brad can't sell what he does not own, if Brad did not state or sign anything that stated he owned 90 net acres, then he was only selling what he did own. I think the buyer was trying to be smart in not specifying what he thought he was buying so as not to miss out on a part of an acre or a couple of acres but it backfired. Since Brad offered the buyer his money back and the buyer declined, I think Brad needs to put his foot up the sellers behind, in court. If Brad was in Texas I would give him the number of my lawyer here. All based of course on what we have heard so far, there are almost always little plot twists and turns.
The reason to not give the buyer what he wants is because it appears he made a mistake and Brad was nice enough to try to let him out of it but the buyers subsequent actions are atrocious and he deserves a good drubbing in court, from what we know now.
Pete Wrench said:
Well if you are in violation of the Warranty of Title clause simply because there is no Mineral Deed from your stepmother to you, then why not just give the Plaintiff what he wants? Have stepmother sign the Mineral Deed, give her some of the proceeds, show up in Court with original Mineral Deed, tell judge you will file the Mineral Deed if judge will unfreeze account, dismiss case with prejudice, and award you attorney's fees? Seems alot quicker, easier, and less expensive than making lawyers rich.
R. W., from the comment below, it appears that Brad did state that he owned "ALL interest in those sections," and was not just conveying whatever interest he owned at that time. So I think he is on the hook for the Warranty of Title clause. When I leased my city lot, I asked for Lessee to remove that clause, or accept a Special Warranty of Title Clause only, but they refused to go along. I went ahead and signed the lease, figuring if they were wrong I was on the hook for only about $350, my bonus consideration. But Brad is operating at a much higher level. No, a mineral owner should not offer a general warranty of title to this much acreage (unless perhaps he has a title policy).
Brad Cordis said:It wasnt Ferrell I was refering to, Joe. They ARE slow to close however they have always done me right. And the contract didntHave acreage specifics. It only states ALL interest in those sections.
Brad might actually own 90 acres or some part less than the whole section, but he signed a Mineral Deed stating that he conveyed "ALL interest" in the section (see post second from bottom of prior Web page); and the Mineral Deed contained a Warranty of Title clause guaranteeing that he owned what he was purporting to convey, meaning that if he does not actually own what he is guaranteeing that he owns, Buyer has a cause of action against him.
He did not state that he was conveying "ALL MY interest" or "ALL interest that I own at this time," or anything like that, at least from the way I interpret the wording on the previous post. Obviously, reading the actual deed would be better. I believe it was stated that there are $129,000 at stake here, so that's why I was suggesting just having stepmother sign the Mineral Deed, unless Brad thinks that his half ALONE is worth that much or that he can get much more than $129,000 for his and his stepmother's portions combined. In that case, absolutely not, don't have her sign the Mineral Deed. Good luck wid it.
Since Brad has no right to sell his stepmother's minerals, using your interpretation of all, he sold the entire section, his stepmom's, his, complete strangers. I don't think that will hold water.
Also, the buyer wrote the contract so it must be looked on in the most favorable light of the seller. Brad also offered to give the money back and let the buyer out of his mistake and the buyer refused. Art this point if I were Brad, I would want to see the buyer in a Wile-E-Coyote suit waiting for a 16 ton anvil to come down. At best for the buyer, I think the court may find that there was no meeting of the minds, if there is no mention of how many acres were supposed to be sold. The buyer didn't do his due dilligence from what we can see right now. The buyer didn't want to call it a mistake and start over, possibly he could have bought Brads acres and made an offer to the stepmother for hers, but no, he tried the route of legal [at least I am assuming it was legal at this point] extortion by having Brads account frozen. I wish Brad would give more information like the whole thing with the names removed.
How does that old saying go? There are 3 sides to every story, yours, mine, and the truth.
I don’t have a dog in this hunt, but found the case interesting for mineral buyers (and possibly sellers). Brad's version does not match the version as filed in public records in the court case. The judge ruled for the plaintiff.
You are so right, Rick. I made disclaimers through this thread, because I don't understand why someone would just give enough information to favor their side, but I know that they do. To me, if you are in a jam you need the best advice you can get and you need to give all pertinent facts to get it, you may not want to hear that your goose is cooked, but if it is, that is exactly what you need to hear.
R. W., you're chasing your tail here. Brad did not own all the minerals in the section, that is agreed. So obviously if he signs a document purporting to sell "ALL interest" in the section (not "all MY interest"), that does NOT mean that he actually DID sell the whole section! Of course he didn't, he can only sell what he owns. But if he claims to sell "ALL interest" in the section and includes a warranty guaranteeing that he selling "ALL interest," but does not own "ALL interest," then he better get a hold of "ALL interest" real quick or he is going to open himself up to a lawsuit.
He wanted to sell the minerals, so unless he thinks he can get more than $129,000 for his AND his stepmother's interests, whatever they amount to, he should just have her sign the Mineral Deed and be done with it.
His stepmother isn't involved as far as I have read. Why should the buyer get her interest? Obviously the buyer would rather have the acreage than the money back, I bet he thought he got a pretty sweet deal. I would let Brad take care of his problem, if I were stepmom, my 77 acres were never on the table. I don't see where stepmoms minerals come into this? I guess Brad is going bankrupt. In my opinion she should not sign the mineral deed.
His stepmother was involved because apparently whatever minerals she owned would have to be conveyed to Brad in order for him to fulfill his Warranty of Title guarantee in his Mineral Deed. Since Brad hesitated on getting her to do that, that was the basis for the lawsuit: there was no clear title from the stepmother through Brad to the sleazy buyer.
But I just read Rick's post for the first time, he says that the case is over and that the judge did rule for the plaintiff, the sleazy buyer to whom Brad sold the minerals. If that is true, and the sleazy buyer got his money back as he supposedly was requesting from Brad's original posting, well then of course the stepmother should not sign the deed now that the case is over, absolutely not.
Rick also said it didn't appear as Brad was setting it forth as it actually was. I put a disclaimer in my first reply and a few more scattered about. I still think you have to take posters at their word or you can't reply to anything. On one notable instance, a lady said she had ownership in three wells, she was adamant about it. I had already replied to he question as if she were part owner. I finally looked up her leases and had to tell her that she had no ownership in those wells but a royalty interest in the production, only. The question would have been more interesting had she been an owner.
Reminds me of the time that a lady at the poker table told everybody at showdown that she had a flush. Having just a straight, I mucked my hand. Turns out she had misread the board and had only a pair, not a flush, meaning that my hand was the best hand but since I had already discarded it I forfeited my right to the pot. Lesson learned. TRUST BUT VERIFY!
It seems as if the issue was with the warranty Brad gave in his deed. If you sell 100 acres of land, and give a full or “general” warranty, you are guaranteeing to the buyer that they are receiving full ownership of that 100 acres. If you actually own 75% of that tract, you have breached your obligation to warrant the peaceable possession and ownership of that 100 acres. This appears to be what happened to Brad. Since he was apparently in default of his warranty obligations, the buyer could demand that he either fix the problem by acquiring the remaining interest in the property at his expense (I.e. asking Brad to acquire his stepother’s interest) or
...or pay monetary damages.
So no, Brad could not obligate his whole section to sell if he in fact purported to sell all the rights in it (indeed, even if he tried to get Stepmom to convey her interest to him, she would have been well within her rights to refuse). However, if he promised to convey all mineral rights in the section, he would be in breach of his covenant of warranty if he failed to so.
On a final note, the purchaser apparently either made a costly oversight regarding the stepmom's deed in a rush to close, or was simply too hapless to bother with title research before delivering money. In either case, the purchaser is the one to blame, not Brad, even if they were able to skate by using their favorable contract language.
Legalities aside, if the situation developed the way previous posts have described it, this is an abhorrent way to do business. The purchaser in such a case should count their blessings that Brad is too chivalrous to give their name and warn others.
Never warrant the minerals to someone who should know what is there. Quit claim only.
I would have a healthy 40+ woman to whip his ass in public. That is what my father(Frank B. Moore) did when someone attempted to swindle him.
How do I figure out that mineral rights are mine?
My aunt gave me mineral rights she inherited from her husband.
I have legal description. I just got an unsolicited offer to buy my rights.
After reading this, I'd like to make sure the rights are mine!. $1800/acre. Dewey county, OK.
I'd like to know what is going on in area, get better offer. Happy to sell. 136 acres.