Head-scratchers: (1) Is a mineral reservation a fraction of royalty, or a fractional royalty? (2) Is there a difference? (3) Does it matter? Answers: (1) It depends on how you phrase it. (2) Yes. (3) Yes, if you care about being paid on production, or you are the scrivener of deeds and assignments and want to… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: mineral reservation
Mistaken Reference in a Deed to a Mineral Reservation Does Not Reserve the Minerals
Posted in Land Titles“If you want a successful gathering of long-lost kinfolks, just manage to find oil on the old homestead. They will come out from under logs, down trees, from out of the blue and down every road and byway, but they’ll get there — even some nobody ever suspected were kinfolks.” Judge R. T.Brown, who presided… Continue Reading
Right of First Refusal Was a Covenant Running With the Land
Posted in Land TitlesQuestion: Can a landowner enforce a right of first refusal bargained for by his predecessor? Answer: It depends. (Note to self: Why do you always say that in your posts? Because, as Texas Rangers’ manager Ron Washington might say, “That’s the way the law go”.) The answer in MPH Production Co. v. Smith et al, was yes,… Continue Reading
Reserving a Mineral Interest Without Saying So
Posted in Land TitlesIt ‘s tough to find an interesting picture of a title dispute, so here’s a musical interlude. You never can tell how the court will construe a complicated property deed. Can the seller of land retain half of the minerals he owns in the property if he doesn’t actually reserve anything? Yes, he can, says Hunsaker v. Brown Distributing, Ltd….. Continue Reading
The Reservation Was Not in the Deed
Posted in Land TitlesThe contract of sale for the property mentions that you, the seller, intend to reserve the hard minerals, but not the oil and gas beneath the property. The deed to close the transaction contains no reservation of anything.