Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by LewisClarku on October 6, 2013 at 3:15am

The current law in Ohio is confusing, criminal and misinterpreted as written.... This coming from lawyers who created this mess to self serve themselves.....case in point....how can you have a law where in the course of a sale of a parcel of land the deed specifically excludes the mineral rights in the sale...it was a condition of the sale and agreed to by the person purchasing the land....and the mineral rights are clearly spelled out in the deed as being retained by the person selling only the surface rights. This is an agreed contract! How is it right that deed (conditions of the original land sale) which has been passed down within a family be lost simply due to a period of time? What changed???This happened to my family...the law allows this to happen as long as the surface owner puts an 8 font public notice thats posted and buried in the back of some 2-bit local newspaper giving a 60 day notice of abandonment....this a notice correct but there is no attempt to locate the heirs. In our case our family was actually listed in the Public Notice still live < 15 miles from Martins Ferry and we're listed in the phone book!!! We found that we were loosing our minerals to abandonment from a lawyer in Oklahoma!!! There is something drastically wrong with a law that is misused and allows a deed to be broken and mineral rights to be stolen without at least requiring proper title search and written in the form of a certified letter!!! Heck the lawyer in Oklahoma located us with a FedEx notification but the state of Ohio won't.....he sent us a letter and told us about the Public Notice...even included a photocopy of the notice....we had to sign and return 24 hrs and he could stop the abandonment and in return he'd get 2/3 of all royalties.....nice....huh??? Ya'll should be ashamed of yourselves....greed pure and simple.....you sign a contract....honor it!

Permalink Reply by LewisClarku on November 27, 2013 at 1:35am

Just as I thought....no replies. Let me put this another way so according to this law The surface owner who signed the deed acknowledging the land my family sold them excludes the gas, mineral & oil rights should not have a problem with me posting a notice in the newspaper and drive away with their car. All this law has done is strip us of our liberty!

Permalink Reply by LewisClarku on December 1, 2013 at 3:55pm

Dear James....you don't know Jack. First we have legal representation....we have filed the necessary legal paperwork on other deeds and actually stopped 3 claims and are in the process of recovering an additional illegally signed lease of which the OG company is suing their title search team for not doing their proper due diligence. As I said it is a BS law put in place by greedy surface owners who feel entitled to taking something that doesn't belong to them. If they wanted the mineral and oil rights they should rightfully pay for them....otherwise it's called theft.....which I presume even you might be able to comprehend?....Have a nice life....

Permalink Reply by Josh Willis on December 1, 2013 at 7:53pm

Rich, I can understand your frustration with the law but please consider the reason the law was originally enacted. What happens when people die with no heirs or companies go out of business, then these minerals would forever be lost. I am just thankful we live in a country where private citizens can own these wonderful resources instead of the government owning all minerals.

Permalink Reply by Dan on March 27, 2013 at 7:37am

Another verdict was just handed down that went the same way as Wendt v Dickerson.  In Walker v Noon, once again the defendant's claim to the minerals was considered null and void since he didn't have any saving acts 20 years prior to 1992.

Permalink Reply by LewisClarku on November 17, 2013 at 12:52am

This law is absolute BS,! This law must have been written by a greedy land owner who signed a deal to buy the surface land knowing it excluded the o&g and mineral rights...period. If they wanted to buy the mineral oil and gas then they should have negotiated a higher price....essentially this is outright stealing and breaking a legitimate contract. As long as there are legitimate heir(s) to the mineral rights the surface owner has no rights....they signed a contract knowing they did not own the m,o & g rights. Theses land sales were originally done for this reason.....time should have no bearing in a decision to abandon ones legitimate rights as long as the heir is alive.

Permalink Reply by M Thomas on July 24, 2013 at 6:05am

See the latest court decisions on the 1989 Ohio Dormant Mineral Act - http://gomarcellusshale.com/forum/topics/1989-ohio-dormant-mineral-...

Permalink Reply by LewisClarku on December 1, 2013 at 9:37pm

Dear Jane
Spilled milk...cut me to the heart with that one...genius.....As I suspected you must be one of the greedy surface land owners who never understood you didn't own the mineral rights in the first place and now you coward like a little child behind a law which has been misused and abused. Trust me Jane, I know more about the law than you ever will my dear.
Yes we live in a great country and laws are generally put in place to protect the weak or prevent our government from taking our liberties. Sadly, this law does neither. It is weak and immorally applied....sadly like yourself. A moral law would protect all and require a proper due diligence be performed....plain and simple....if rightful heirs can not be found then yes the mineral rights should be abandoned to the surface owner but unfortunately this law is slanted to the landowner. A real man would honor a contract and if he wanted to purchase the rights he should approach the rightful owner....it's called a negotiation. As I said putting in a public notice in 6 font in the back of a two bit local newspaper is not due diligence....it may be the law and as I said jane....it doesn't' make it right and it is morally wrong but when are things ever moral when your talking money? Trust me I' m fine no spilled milk here but I represent all those individuals (the weak) who worked hard and did the right thing when their families bought their land. Sleep tight, Jane.

Permalink Reply by Dan on December 1, 2013 at 9:43pm

The laws are slanted to make it easier for companies to build drilling units. That can help the mineral owner but that is not the design. Laws to protect our liberty??????

Permalink Reply by Finnbear on December 5, 2013 at 4:51pm

So Rich, did you file the proper preservation documents every 20 years or not?

Permalink Reply by davy crockett on February 5, 2014 at 4:54pm

It seems that the 'intent of the law' was to develop mineral interest if no heirs can be found or come forward, generating money for the state and federal government as well as the current landowner.  My problem with both versions is that if an heir is found or replies to a notice, their ancestors reserved and passed down the mineral interests and it should not be taken away nor should the reserver/heir have to file anything every 20 years.

 

99.999999% of current landowners realized their was a reservation for oil and gas, coal, etc. in their deed when they purchased the property so they did not nor should not expect any compensation from the development of the subsurface minerals.  If the law was written this way, think of how easily this mess would be cleared up and inordinate amounts of money would not have to be spent on lawyers and court costs to clear up an already clear answer to the problem.  The lawyers essentially wrote a law and passed it guaranteeing future work for themselves to fix this issue.  Now, the fine print of the law itself is being argued.  It just will never end until cases are heard in the Ohio Supreme Court, and even then one Supreme Court case may not address or answer all the different arguments that can be questioned in the Dormant Mineral Act.

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