Occasionally, we venture beyond the comfortable red-state confines of Texas to visit swing states and discuss mineral activity other than oil and gas drilling; and we go back in time. This is one of those journeys, as we go to Ohio, where the court relied on a decision from the time when Chester A. Arthur
Five Ways to Help Your Title Examiner – Second Half
By Travis Booher – Aggie
For the sake of the game plan, let’s run with Charlie’s lame football analogies, and look at a few more objectives to keep in mind when preparing a runsheet. This time, attention will be on the good guys (the boys in maroon), rather than the gang in purple and gold.
Five Ways You Can HelpYour Title Examiner Reach the Goal Line
Written by Travis Booher
Disclaimer: Travis should not be blamed for the lame football analogies in this post.
All too often landmen see the same old comments and the same old requirements in title opinions. I was recently asked for ways to decrease the number of comments and requirements and hence, the amount of curative
Reformation For Mutual Mistake Is Not Available to a Negligent Party
My, how times change! In a suit that brings the chaos, frenzy, and all-embracing madness of 2008 Haynesville leasing activity into focus, Hall Ponderosa LLC vs. Petrohawk Properties L.P. held that reformation of an oil and
An Operating Agreement Can Be a Covenant Running With the Land
I promise this will be the last post in a while on covenants running with the land. I think we all get it by now (This topic was discussed in my August 1 post).
The Result
A Joint Operating Agreement referenced in documents that is in a party’s chain of title and is, by its
Right of First Refusal Was a Covenant Running With the Land
Question: 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
Reserving a Mineral Interest Without Saying So
It ‘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
What is the NPRI Owner’s Share of Production?
With apologies to Click and Clack, from time to time I will post “puzzlers”, questions about title and similar issues that have no apparent answer. Here is the first one:
Joe Bob Joiner owns a non-participating royalty interest under a tract. The amount of interest he owns is tied to the amount of royalty stated
Beware of Strips and Gores
A “strip” is just what it sounds like: A narrow parcel of land. A”gore” is a strip in another form, such as a triangle or other odd-shaped parcel. When a grantor conveys land he owns adjacent to a narrow strip that thereby ceases to be of benefit or importance to him, he also conveys the narrow strip unless he reserves the strip for himself by plain and specific language. These random tracts can be valuable when there is oil and gas production and can be lost without careful contract drafting.
Escondido Services, LLC v. VKM Holdings, LP, Escondido Services, 321 S.W.3d 102 (Tex. App—Eastland)
The Reservation Was Not in the Deed
The 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.
Continue Reading The Reservation Was Not in the Deed