Why is Clayton Williams withholding my royalty payments?

I CAN'T GET THEM TO RELEASE THE ROYALTY INCOME TO ME THEY HAVE BEEN HOLDING MY ROYALTY CHECKS FOR 10 MONTHS AFTER I COMPLETED ALL LEGAL REQUIREMENTS NEEDED FOR INHERITING THESE ROYALTIES.


In the 1970's my father worked as a geophysical consultant for the Clayton Williams Oil company in Midland, TX. He was paid with Overide interest on the wells he worked on. (bartering).

Over time, his interest was bought and sold by many companies. He created a family trust in 1998, but never transferred these royalties to the trust.

He died June 2012. As his daughter, I did a lot of work-paying each county to record wills, trust, and other misc paperwork required. I've paid at more than $1,000 in legal fees.

After one year, I finally got checks from most of them. (Some just stopped producing, I guess). I want to sell these royalties because I have Ovarian Cancer and they are causing me too much grief.

One exception is Clayton Williams-The origin of all these Overide interests.

They are telling me they can't pay because community property laws require me to probate my mother's will and repeat the legal process I went through to legally inherit my fathers interest. My parents never divorced were married when the assets were assigned to my dad. They agree with all of these facts. They also agree I have fulfilled my legal requirements. Community Property law? They only paid by check in my father's name. If there were separate interest, I would be getting separate checks for my mother! THIS DEFIES COMMON SENSE!

BUT THEY STILL ARE HOLDING MY MONEY! My estate lawyer has charged me for the conversations he had with Williams and, I have had many communications by phone and e-mail, with the company landman and both of them won't tell me what I need to do. The only statment I get is "we are working on getting you the money as quickly as possible" We are not talking about a large amount. about $1,300 net in 2011. They stopped paying as soon as I informed them my dad passed away. (They admit they owe me $800.)

The controversy seems to be Burleson County, they sent me two letters: one said the were "reforming the wells, the next letter said they were making the Burleson wells into a "unit".

I just want to know what their game is. Does anyone have a theory? I just want to know what the truth is. I can't even get my own lawyer that I pay to tell me-and they must know.

Does anyone here have mineral rights in Burleson County, TX? Is there some plan for these wells i would not know about?

If you need to send me a private message, [email protected] or reply to the thread. I'm dying of curiosity and other things. Please tell every one you know about this story.

Thanks for reading my story. I really have complied with required legal work. Every other company has accepted it.

Thanks-Suzan Holten

Thanks

I will check on this for you & get back to you.

I near the end of 6 months of chemo for Breast Cancer at MD Anderson (MDA) and will have 6 weeks of radiation in Jan.-Feb. Hang in there and "Fight Like a Girl," Suzan, as they say at MDA! I will do what I can to help you. I may be able to help you sell your minerals, too.

Liz Taylor

Midland, Texas