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About Frederick M. Scott CMM RPL
Expertise
I can answer questions about oil and gas leasing, and give suggestions on negotiating a good oil and gas lease and how to best deal with oil companies or their representatives. I can answer questions about buying and selling oil and gas royalty or mineral rights. I can help with questions concerning forced-pooling, correlative rights, deeds and conveyances, and "post-production" costs. I am most experienced with Oklahoma properties and laws, but am able to answer questions concerning other oil and gas producing states in many cases.

Experience
I am a Certified Professional Mineral Manager (CMM) (certified by the National Association of Royalty Owners in Tulsa, OK) and have managed my own oil and gas properties in Oklahoma for over 10 years. I have dealt with many landmen, attorneys, and other oil and gas professionals in the course of doing so. I am also a member of several professional associations and have written articles of interest to royalty owners which have appeared in several industry publications. I have prepared deeds, title work, and done curative for my own minerals; and have acquired a good deal of knowledge on the subject of oil and gas law and landwork in general in the process. I am the owner of Timbercreek Mineral Company, LLC; which was formed as a vehicle to manage family mineral interests, and as a way to facilitate the buying and selling of oil and gas interests for other people.

Organizations
NARO, NADOA, AAPL

Publications
National Association of Royalty Owners "Action Report" (ROAR); NADOA Magazine, Landman Magazine, and several royalty owner association groups newsletters.

Education/Credentials
NARO, NADOA, AAPL

You are here: Experts > Industry > Oil/Gas > Oil/Gas > Minerals - Lost acreage in a Judgement

Oil/Gas - Minerals - Lost acreage in a Judgement

Expert: Frederick M. Scott CMM RPL - 11/5/2009

Question
In 1920, our grandparents were sued in district court for an unpaid grocery bill in Texas. Our grandparents could not read nor write which can be verified by their "X" marks on documents. They lost their 380 acre ranch in the judgement against them. My grandmother appealed to a higher court and was able to keep part of the ranch which was protected by the Homestead Act. My question is this, do they still own the minerals on the acreage that they lost in the judgement? The property had been in the family since 1854 when it was patented to my great-grandfather and my grandfather inherited this property. I saw in an earlier post by someone who stated that they still owned the minerals in acreage that they lost in ajudgement due to unpaid taxes and wonder if the same situation applies to us.

Thank you for all the questions you have answered on this web-site. They are extremely helpful.

Answer
Ann, if your grandparents owned the minerals at the time of the judgment, and in fact lost all the land save the homestead, then it would be my guess that the minerals under all but the homestead were lost as well. You'd want to look at the actual judgment if possible and see if it specifies, which it may or may not. If no minerals are mentioned, then likely they went with the land.

You could also simply go to the courthouse and trace the title of the tract up from patent and see who, if anyone, eventually got the minerals. You could look for any recent leases on the minerals, as they would have the current owners name. If they have never been leased, then you could still find out a good deal by starting with the patent deed and going forward to find out whose name the land ended up in. If no minerals were reserved on a deed prior to that judgment (which also may be filed there) and the judgment didn't specifically mention minerals, then you could be pretty sure the minerals were lost along with the land.

A title attorney or landman in Texas who could check this out in detail would be your best bet actually as I am only "guessing" without actually looking at the documents. Would be nice to have a copy of the judgment as well if possible.

While its true than some TAX deeds are successfully challenged later for the minerals, I'm not sure the same applies to other types of judgments.

Hope this helps you out.
Frederick M. "Mick" Scott CMM RPL
Timbercreek Mineral Company, LLC

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