I recently lost 110 acres of minerals, by all state and federal laws, belonged to me, in circuit court, in Van Buren Co. I purchased the property in 2000. The seller did not mention the mineral rights at point of purchase, and provided me a fee simple warranty deed with no reservations. My grantors grantor, before selling to my grantor, severed the minerals, and put into a corporation, named Cen Ark Corporation, but guaranteed title as man and wife, with a fee simple warranty deed to my grantor, without reservations in the deed, he sold to my grantor in 1995. In 11/2004, my grantors, grantor , removed minerals from Cen Ark Corp, and put them back into he and wife's personal names, which should have immediately caused after acquired title, and the minerals revert to the surface owner, since they had personally guaranteed, the deed, against all future claims with the fee simple warranty deeds, with no mineral reservations. The court allowed him to reform the deeds back to 1995, because he claimed his intent was different than the end result, what happened in 1995 there was no interest in CNG in this area, in 11/ 2004, the leasing of most of the land was complete, by the operators. Ignorance is no excuse in law. Reformation definition states on USLegal.com, that the courts do not have the authority to impose reformation on a party to the deed, that does not agree as to the reformed contract. My grantors, grantor, committed after acquired title on over 6000 acres of minerals in Van Buren Co. in 11/2004, the actual owners, of surface also own minerals on this acreage, but don't know that they do, and my grantors grantor's family is getting paid a large amount, for little or no interest in 6000 acres in VB county, that according to the laws, they do not own. This is an important notice to mineral owners in VB county, AR, in the Fayetteville Shale play to check your deeds, if Cen-Ark, or Jay-Jon corporations are in your down line of title, the minerals are not reserved, in any of the deeds, and there's a great chance, they belong to the surface owner. You will have to file suit to claim them, I would find an oil and gas attorney, with federal court experience, and research his integrity, before you hire them, and I would go with an out of state attorney. My attorney was bought by someone, either the operator, banker, or both. Try to get before a federal court. You will lose in Arkansas at the state level. I am the second person, reformation was imposed upon. There is a distinct possibility the operator, is involved in this corruption, as well as the state of Arkansas. I have filed complaints with all authorities in the state with no help rendered. The reason bankers have interest is my grantors grantor, owes large amounts to several banks, and if they lose these 6000 acres of minerals, they could not repay the loans. There even has been meetings between bankers to discuss, my grantors grantor's, ability to pay status. Both cases so far, was Mauldin vs Snowden in 2011, and Longing vs Snowden, in the appeallate courts of Arkansas, in 2013. Both cases were ruled reformation, of the deeds, and it did not apply to either case. The deeds speak for themselves.These comments are my opinion.
All operators had in in the mineral leases a warranty clause, by the defendant, that would have made all of their 6000 acres of
the operators leases worthless, and it would have cost the operators millions. The defendant owned no minerals by law. The defendant and partner, would not have been able to cover, and warranty the leases financially. No matter if the operators got a judgement in their favor, it would not have been worth anything, on this amount of acreage. They would have had to release all of the 6000 acres of land to the true owners, at a time they were knowledgeable, about mineral
rights worth. The cat was out of the bag at this point. So the banker and the operators, worked against the true mineral
holders of these 6000 acres of minerals. No wonder the judge lives in a expensive house, driving new autos, and his
son’s tuition is being paid by a major operator in this area, with a promise of a career upon graduation from the operator,
and was bankrupt 3 years ago, not paying his bills to a lot of local businesses. It is rotten corrupt politics, the governors
son has a job with a Arkansas operator, all of them are probably benefitting from these operators, including Arkansas
senator, governor, attorney general, Arkansas bar Assn, Judicial Disciplaniary and Disability Committee,
that I complained to twice, during my 5 year legal battle, they are all involved, along with several very corrupt
lawyers, that was working against me and refused to refund 20 K of legal fees. This information is of my opinion, Arkansas is bought and paid for, by the states operators, again my personal
opinion.I was denied help from every one of these mostly lame duck politicians, most of which I supported, with my vote, and campaign contributions,
All they would tell me, is I cannot help you. I contacted the attorney general 6 or 7 times, to no avail, and that is who the
federal justice department advised me was responsible for this issue. Now I know why !!!