Can my Brother's step children inherit his share in his mineral rights in Texas. Their Mother has recently passed.
Patricia
Patricia,
You need to provide more information before someone can give you the correct response.
1. Did your brother adopt his wife's children?
2. Were the minerals community property? If yes, did your brother's wife have a will and did she leave her 1/2 of the minerals to her children?
6GT
My brother did not adopt her children, the mineral rights did not come to our knowledge until 9 years after he passed away and a landman contacted us about the drilling on the property. I did an affidavit of heirship and that is when we found that his widow would share in our royalties. Texas is a community property state. She did leave a will and her sons are telling us they will get the royalties now. I do not want to go to the expense of an attorney if this the way it works. My brother did have a son that preceded him in death. Does this help/
What was the source of the mineral rights that you did not know about until 9 years after your brother's death? In other words, where did they come from? Did he not have a will and this is why you signed an Affidavit of Heirship and you received part of his mineral interest? How many total mineral acres are there? Who all has been receiving royalties from the well or wells drilled on the property?
I am not an attorney but it is my opinion that only the interest his widow had will pass to her sons, if it was not a life estate that passed to someone else. They cannot receive any more of the minerals/royalties than she owned.
There are a lot of questions that have to be answered for you to get an answer.
Thank you for taking time to giving a through answer. The entire story is very complicated. The mineral rights were passed down from my Grandfather. He died and left them to my Grandmother, when my Grandmother died there was the only child living at that time. Because she outlived her 3 sons (my Father being one of the 3 sons) the mineral rights were suppose to go to the only living daughter and the children of the deceased sons. Here is where it got complicated. For many years the children of the 3 deceased sons never received royalties. They all went to the spouses of the deceased sons. Then 3 years ago when drilling started again the Landman was performing his due diligence on the heirs. This is when I found out that the only living daughter always said in the past she didn't know where any of her nieces and nephews were. The Landman did find us and asked me to do an affidavit of heirship. That is when he discovered that my Grandmother outlived her sons. That is when the spouses of the deceased sons were then excluded from the royalties and all the grandchildren then received royalties. It was explained to me by the attorneys it had been disbursed incorrectly in all the previous years by the other companies. I was also told that my brother's widow would receive his part of the royalties, there was a will. But, I was also told that those payments would stop and not go to his stepchildren once his wife passed. I will say the Landman shared that this was one of the most complicated cases he had ever seen. I am looking for direction, again, if legally her children should receive these royalties I do not want to fight this. Thank you again for even responding, I just don't know what to do if anything.
Did your brothers son have any heirs? If he did then the sons heirs would inherit. If your brother died intestate, with no children or heirs of his deceased children then the minerals would go 1/2 to his wife and 1/2 to his parents, if living and his siblings.
If he had a Will it would go how the Will dictated.
These minerals are separate property not community.
Patricia Daniels said:
My brother did not adopt her children, the mineral rights did not come to our knowledge until 9 years after he passed away and a landman contacted us about the drilling on the property. I did an affidavit of heirship and that is when we found that his widow would share in our royalties. Texas is a community property state. She did leave a will and her sons are telling us they will get the royalties now. I do not want to go to the expense of an attorney if this the way it works. My brother did have a son that preceded him in death. Does this help/