I have mineral rights in several counties in Oklahoma that were left to my father by his parents. My father passed away several years ago and set up three trusts. Trust one was in a partnership, of my Mom, Brother Sister and I, with my Mother benefiting from about 70% of the oil & gas proceeds, stocks and bonds and the remainder was set up in trust for his children. Trust two was to benefit my Mother for the rest of her life of assets they acquired during marriage, even if she decided to remarry, as long as it was not oil and gas properties inherited from my Father’s family estate. Trust three was set up to protect his family mineral rights and to benefit my Mother as long as she was widowed and then to his children if she re-married. Here is my problem. My Mother re-married 6 years ago. The court order and final decree of my father’s estate the trustee's assigned all his minerals to his surviving spouse while she was un-married per my Father's will.
Here is what transpired while my Mother was not a widow. She collected royalty checks for six years from deeded minerals from my Father’s parent’s estate and conveyed them to her newly legal married name, but not all the minerals. Only the one’s with the most production. Here is the “catch” that made this all seem legal. The second trust was to benefit my Mother as long as she was widowed. She assigned the minerals to herself in my legal name the same as my Father’s, but I was a "second" II. So, therefore you could fool oil and gas companies into paying you royalties thinking they were paying the rightful owner. She then assigned the minerals to her newly married name and is collecting the royalty oil & gas companies thinking it was R.L. and not R.L II. All the properties she conveyed to herself are producing and if we receive any lease offers after production ceases any good landman will see the defects in title. I just want to clear up title, before it get's to messy.
Through the tragedy of losing my Dad, my Mother and step Dad have lived a very comfortable lifestyle and I’m close to them both, but I fill my siblings and I are entitled to the lost revenue and curing title to resolve these issues. I dearly love my Mom, but want to keep my Father's wishes and don’t want to get involved in a lawsuit. I have not spoken to my Mother about these issues, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Yours truly,
R.L