I have a few questions relating to a gas well in Texas that we apparently own mineral rights to (as heirs of my grandfather).
We had been contacted by a landman last fall about money being held in receivership, which we eventually received from the court. The oil company now has sent a division order stating what my grandfather's share was and was my share is. I have no idea if any of this is correct and realize that in order to find out for sure, I will need to hire someone to do some researching. My question is, does the fact that this division order was sent absolutely mean that there are further funds due to us, or could it possibly have been sent only because of the change of ownership of the mineral rights from my grandather to me - basically to verify that the % are correct?
Also, as far as funds held in receivership - I had asked previously about these funds and how to go about finding out how much money was actually there, and was told to check the Texas Unclaimed Funds website, which I did. This money was never listed there. I found out later it was actually being held by the county. Is there any point that the county actually would have turned this money over to the state? I'm assuming that the state unclaimed funds website only pertains to funds held by the state??
And my last question is, is it appropriate to expect that since this landman received quite a bit of these funds for the work that he did for us that he would share his research with us? I'm sure that would save us a lot of time and money for any further searching that we do.
TIA for any help or direction!
Mary
No, it does not absolutely mean that there are further funds due to you. It depends upon what type of ownership your grandfather had, whether or not the well is still in production, etc. Maybe the well stopped producing and the amount sent to you represents the total amount accumulated up to the time the well stopped producing. But yes, the Division Order basically states that you agree to whatever % the oil company says that they think you own. If in fact it turns out that you own more than what they think you own, and you sign the Division Order anyway, I think it's too late (not positive about that). So make sure you own what they say you own before signing the Division Order.
The money was never listed at the State Comptroller's Unclaimed Property Web site because the money was held by the Court. I believe that you are correct, after a period of time the Court would have to turn that money over to the State of Texas.
Regarding the landman research, I doubt that he "received quite a bit of these funds for the work that he did for us." I bet that was paid by the oil company, but NOT from any funds due to you and your grandfather's other heirs. I believe that paying the landman out of funds belonging to your grandfather's heirs would be larceny or theft, so again I doubt that happened. If the oil company paid the landman to conduct that research out of company funds, that research would be company property and no, you could not "expect" them to share that with you. However, it cannot hurt to ask them to do so, there's a good chance that they will choose to do so.
The landman was the one who originally contacted us about the money in receivership. He stated that he would do all the work necessary to get the money for us if we paid him 30% of the money. Since we didn't even know my grandfather owned these mineral rights, most of the family agreed to his terms and signed the agreement giving him permission to represent us and obtain the money. We all received checks from the court, less the amount (30%) that he received. So, the money he received came from our share of the mineral rights.
We received the money in January and last month, we received a certified letter from the oil company with this division order. It states my grandfather's share and then our share as his heirs. Without any previous knowledge of any of this, we have no way of knowing if these percentages are correct. We are hesitant to involve an attorney because this may be all the money we ever receive and could very easily spend more than we received, since not all involved are willing to share the expense of an attorney.
As with many others on the forum, we are not located anywhere near the location of this well and any research would have to cover a good number of years since my grandfather passed away in 1964.
Just not sure how to proceed.
Mary
OHHH, OK, I see what happened. I was confused because the person who contacted you is not somebody who I would refer to as a landman, he's more of a skip tracer or private investigator or opportunist. I would contact the Land Department at the actual oil and gas company (the producer) BEFORE signing the Division Order and ask if they will explain to you how they calculated your NET MINERAL ACREAGE. What you want to know is what fractional interest your grandfather owned, and exactly how it got divided among his heirs and descendants. They don't have to take the time to explain it to you, but most of them will if you are pleasant and persistent.
No, I think he really is a landman. A member of his family owns a title company (he may be part owner also). I'm not sure how it all fits together but there seem to be many connections here.
I did ask the oil company for a copy of the lease and something showing my grandfather's name. They did provide the list of mineral rights owners and their share of the mineral rights, but how do I know this is correct? As I mentioned, my grandfather passed away 50 years ago. In some cases, they (the oil company and/or title office) can't even spell our names right - it might be spelled correctly in one part of the document and then misspelled in another - so how would we be sure anything they send is correct? Then it seems as though there are other properties involved (is this pooling, maybe?) in this lease, so I'm not sure how that affects my grandfather's share.
The lease mentions gas storage, and I don't know how that fits into this either. It also mentions that the section my grandfather had mineral rights in was already leased prior to this lease - just that particular section. So, wouldn't there be mineral rights from that also? Possibly they were included in the funds that were in receivership.
It seems as though the more answers I get, the more questions I have.
Mary
Pete,
I just read another post of yours about how a good landman goes back in time when researching and then comes forward. Since I'm assuming that my grandfather bought these mineral rights somewhere between 1900 and 1920 (that was when we believe he purchased other mineral rights in Okla, where he lived at the time), would it be necessary then to go back to those years to find exactly when he purchased the mineral rights? And then work forward to see if he may have sold any of them? Isn't that the only way to know for sure exactly what his share was?
BTW, thanks again for taking the time to reply. I truly appreciate your help.
Mary