My 2nd cousin, who my wife and I were very close with, passed away last week. He did not make a will as he had no kids. My wife was his financial beneficiary and health directive; we were the closest thing to his kids.
He has mineral rights, and we have some of his information from it, but no deed. We are trying to find out the value of his mineral rights to see if it is worth pursuing claiming them. My father is his closest living relative to contest, so he would be the one claiming it.
The tricky part, we are not aware of him having any debts except for possible medical bills. Monthly he receives around $100-$150 from oil companies. He has also received payments in the past for another mineral, I just do not know what it was. I have information from the companies, but I don’t know what to make of it. Please guide me in the right direction.
We are trying to find out how much his mineral rights are worth before we go through the process of trying to claim in. If his debts and lawyer fees are greater than the worth of the property, we are unsure what to do.
Welcome to the forum and condolences on the passing of your cousin.
We can answer a bit better if you give the location-section, township and range (Block, Abstract name and number, Section Teas).
If he was receiving royalties, collect the check stubs as you will need information off of them. Do not cash any more checks after the date of death. You will need to inform the operator of his death and request that the funds be put in suspense until his estate is settled.
See if you can find anything in his records regarding the mineral rights as to state and county. We can help with the activity to see if anything is pending if we have location information from the checks or any paperwork that you find. Several attorneys are on the forum and can comment more fully on your next path. If there is no will, there are very specific intestate rules governed by the state of his residence. Your dad may not be the only relative who should be listed.
All of his payments to his account are being done via ACH.
There are multiple, all in North Dakota. Billings, Burke, Dunn, Hettinger, Mercer, Mountrail, Slope, and Williams county. A lot of what he owns is anywhere from 1/32nd to 5/400th’s interest in the mineral rights.
Several of those counties have very active horizontal drilling, so you need to understand what he has in pay right now and what the potential for future drilling is.
Did you find any division orders in his files? That will give you more information. Does he have any paper statements? Did he have an attorney that helped with his affairs? You may need to get a landman to help track down the title. Even small acreage can add up.
Intestate succession goes by the laws of the state where the property is located.
Here is a copy of the ND intestate succession law.
You will need to find out where the relative(s) fit in. An operator may need more proof that there are not other relatives that are higher ip the chain.
30.1-04-03. (2-103) Share of heirs other than surviving spouse.
Any part of the intestate estate not passing to a decedent’s surviving spouse under section
30.1-04-02, or the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, passes in the following order to the individuals who survive the decedent:
To the decedent’s descendants by representation.
If there is no surviving descendant, to the decedent’s parents equally if both survive, or to the surviving parent.
If there is no surviving descendant or parent, to the descendants of the decedent’s parents or either of them by representation.
If there is no surviving descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent, but the decedent is survived on both the paternal and maternal sides by one or more grandparents or descendants of grandparents:
a. Half to the decedent’s paternal grandparents equally if both survive, or to the surviving paternal grandparent, or to the descendants of the decedent’s paternal grandparents or either of them if both are deceased, the descendants taking by representation; and
b. Half to the decedent’s maternal grandparents equally if both survive, or to the surviving maternal grandparent, or to the descendants of the decedent’s maternal grandparents or either of them if both are deceased, the descendants taking by representation.
If there is no surviving descendant, parent, or descendant of a parent, but the decedent is survived by one or more grandparents or descendants of grandparents on the paternal but not the maternal side, or on the maternal but not the paternal side, to the decedent’s relatives on the side with one or more surviving members in the manner as described in subsection 4.
If there is no surviving spouse, descendant, parent, descendant of a parent, grandparent, or descendant of a grandparent, but the intestate decedent has one
deceased spouse who has one or more descendants who survive the decedent, to those descendants by representation or has more than one deceased spouse who has one or more descendants who survive the decedent, the estate is divided into as many equal shares as there are deceased spouses, each share passing to those descendants.
I quoted the ND Intestate succession law as it appeared the deceased had neither a spouse nor children.
Your statement is about what you thought a spouse may receive if a person dies intestate. Were you also referencing ND or, another state’s intestate succession rights? There are no uniform standards among the states.
Indeed there is no uniformity amonst the states. Yes, from long ago (20 years), the succession in ND was a tad different, if I remember correctly. I am aware that the original question did not include a spouse or children, but I was interested in all the replies.
A few thoughts. You say your wife was the financial beneficiary, but at the same time there was no will. Can you explain the beneficiary portion? Intestate succession (without a will) can be very complicated, hence property values and income play a large part in the decision process. If you know the other family members, then you may be able to resolve the issue economically and consolidate their interests.
This is a tough one. The most important question is, you say that you have info from the companies in pay, what does that entail? Given that hes your second cousin, unless you 100% know all of the family ties with certainity (most people dont on 2nd cousins, myself included), there could be several other heirs that have a right to claim and you might be wasting your time. If you think that your father is the sole heir, which Im guessing from a 20k foot birds eye view, is not the case, it might be worth paying an attorney 8 hours of billing time. Personally, Id spend a bit of time nailing down the possible hiers and see what it looks like before paying an attorney.