General Warranty in Mineral Deed

I am hoping to get some an educated opinion on a legal issue that I am dealing with. In short, I bought some minerals last year from a gentleman in Texas and he gave a General Warranty in the Mineral Deed that he owned the full 100% of the minerals under his property. Yada, yada, yada, to make a long story short, it turns out that he only owned 50% of the minerals - this came to light after the closing of the transaction. The other 50% had been reserved before he bought the property. I do not have any way to prove whether or not he knew that he owned only 50% when he sold to us. Furthermore, my landman erroneously missed the 50% reservation when he ran title prior to us closing the transaction (a story for another day....), but in my mind these two pieces of information aren't all that important since he gave the General Warranty in the deed to defend his ownership of the full 100% that he conveyed to us. Therefore, I feel he should be liable for the value lost with the 50% mineral interest that we paid for but didn't actually acquire. I am likely going to pursue a lawsuit since it was not an insubstantial amount of money lost in this matter, but wanted to see if any experts had any experience on this type of matter.

Many thanks in advance.

Did the deed state something like all his interest or did it state the net mineral acreage being conveyed or did it really state he owned 100% of the mineral interest under that tract and conveys all 100% to you ?

"...the full 100% interest in and to all oil, gas and other minerals...." was the granting language and the legal listed the exact acreage of the Subject Lands with the full legal description.

I believe the only fact working against me are 1) that I was given time to do my due diligence in advance and 2) that he may or may not have known that he only owned 50% (I wouldn't be able to prove that he knew even if he really did know). I also believe that the General Warranty in the deed should trump either of those points.

I am curious about this. In the WD, was there any catch all language such as:

"This conveyance is subject to all reservations, exceptions that have been placed of record, all easements, encumbrances, etc."

Good question. The answer is no. Only subject to the oil & gas lease as per this language and with this warrant:

The sale is made subject to any rights now existing in favor of any lease or its assigns INSOFAR ONLY as said lease is valid and subsisting. Grantee shall be entitled to all bonus, delay rentals, suspend payments, and royalties payable after the effective date set forth below and attributable to the Minerals conveyed hereby.

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD the Minerals, together with all and singular the rights and appurtenances belonging in any way to the Minerals, subject to the provisions stated above, to Grantee, their heirs, personal representatives, successors, and assigns, and Grantor shall warrant and forever defend all and singular the Minerals to Grantee and their heirs, personal representatives, successors, and assigns against every person lawfully claiming or to claim all or any part of the Minerals, subject to the provisions stated above.



Buddy Cotten said:

I am curious about this. In the WD, was there any catch all language such as:

"This conveyance is subject to all reservations, exceptions that have been placed of record, all easements, encumbrances, etc."

Best,

Buddy Cotten

Mineral Manager

In the grant, is there any mention of it being 100% "of Grantor's interest" or anything to that effect?