Tanya L. McCabe Trust, McCabe Family Trust, and the Rochford Living Trust v. Ranger Energy LLC

531 S.W.3d 783
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 22, 2016·No. NO. 01-15-00044-CV·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinions

OPINION

Michael Massengale, Justice

In its 2009 opinion in Myrad Properties, Inc. v. LaSalle Bank National Ass’n,2 the Supreme Court of Texas held that a correction deed could not be used to substantively change an unambiguous conveyance of real property to include an additional parcel of land, as that would undermine the purpose of record notice. The Texas Legislature responded in 2011, and again in 2013, by enacting statutes to defíne the circumstances in which a correction deed can be used to change a recorded original instrument of conveyance to remedy non-material clerical or inadvertent errors, or even to make a material correction to the deed.3 This case requires us to apply these new statutes to a dispute about the validity of overriding royalty interests in two oil- and-gas leases.

The appellants, Tanya L. McCabe Trust, McCabe Family Trust, and Rochford Living Trust (collectively, the “Trusts”), acquired overriding royalty interests in eight oil-and-gas leases in Hardin County, Texas. The dispute is limited to two of those leases, called McShane Fee and Brice. Ap-pellee Ranger Energy LLC later acquired some Hardin County leases at a foreclosure auction. Contending that it had acquired the McShane Fee and Brice leases, Ranger Energy filed suit to quiet title. The Trusts responded that the McShane Fee and Brice leases were not subject to the mortgage that was foreclosed, and therefore their overriding royalty interests had not been extinguished.

The parties filed competing motions for summary judgment that focused on the validity of purportedly “corrected” instruments that changed the original mortgage documentation which was recorded at the time the Trusts acquired their overriding royalty interests. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Ranger Energy, and the Trusts appealed. On appeal, the Trusts contend that the purported correction instruments, which added the McShane Fee and Brice leases to the description of the mortgaged property, were invalid as a matter of law.

We agree with the Trusts. The correction instruments were ineffective because they purported to make material changes, yet they were not correctly executed as specified by the Texas Property Code. We reverse the judgment of the trial court, and we remand this case for further proceedings.

[785] Background

The dispute in this case involves two oil- and-gas leases that have been jointly owned and operated as part of a larger group of leases since at least 2004, which is the earliest information reflected in the appellate record. In March 2004, Shamrock Energy Corporation acquired leases pursuant to an assignment and bill of sale which referred to “undivided working interests in those oil and gas leases that are described on the Exhibit ‘A’ that is attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes.” The March 2004 assignment’s “Exhibit ‘A’” included one tract identified as the “T. Conzelman Lease,” and it also included twelve leases identified by name and located in the Saratoga Oil Field in Hardin County, Texas, including leases identified as “McShane Fee” and “Brice.”4

On June 8, 2005, Shamrock Energy conveyed to L & H Family Partnership, Ltd some but not all of its interests acquired in the March 2004 transaction. The conveyance assigned to L & H “undivided working interests in those oil and gas leases that are described on the Exhibit ‘A’ that is attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes.” The June 8, 2005 assignment’s “Exhibit ‘A’ ” excluded the T. Con-zelman Lease, but it included nine of the twelve leases in the Saratoga Oil Field that had been acquired by Shamrock Energy. Leases identified as “McShane Fee” and “Brice” were included.5

[787] L & H quickly flipped the interests it acquired from Shamrock Energy, conveying them to Rex Chambers on June 29, 2005. The transaction assigned to Chambers “undivided working interests in those oil and gas leases that are described on the Exhibit ‘A’ that is attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes.” The “Exhibit ‘A’ ” attached to the June 29,2005 assignment is substantively, identical to the “Exhibit ‘A’ ” describing the royalty interests assigned by Shamrock Energy to L & H.6

Property Name: Brice

Operator: Arrowhead Operating Inc.

County: Hardin

State: Texas

Legal: All lands described in the following Oil, Gas and Mineral Leases and amendments thereto covering 5/16 of an acre located in the C.F.S. Jordit Survey, A-783, Hardin County, Texas. Said leases and amendments recorded as shown in Deed Records of Hardin County, Texas.

1. Oil, Gas & Mineral Lease from Brice Exploration Company to Bryan Lloyd, dated August 16, 1983, recorded in Volume 779, Page 110.

2. Amendment to Oil, Gas & Mineral Lease, from Brice Exploration Company to Bryan M. Lloyd, dated August 16, 1983, recorded in. Volume 818, Page 714.

3. Oil, Gas & Mineral Lease, from Warren K. Hendriks to Biyan M, Lloyd, dated ' August 16, 1983, recorded in Volume 779, Page 112.

4. Amendment to Oil, Gas & Mineral Lease, from Warren K. Hendriks tó Bryan M. , Lloyd, dated August 10, 1985, recorded in Volume 818, Page 7.

[788] The next conveyance relevant to the McShane Fee and Brice leases was an April 2007 assignment from Chambers to Tomco II LLC. The transaction assigned to Tomco II “undivided working interests in those oil and gas leases that are described on the Exhibit ‘A’ that is attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes.” The April 2007 assignment’s “Exhibit ‘A’ ” excluded approximately two-thirds of a page of language that had appeared at the beginning of the “Exhibit ‘A’” descriptions attached to the June 8 and June 29, 2005 assignments. The April 2007 “Exhibit ‘A’ ” also listed descriptions of only six of the nine leases in the Sarato-ga Oil Field that had been acquired by Chambers. The three excluded leases were “McShane Fee,” “Brice,” and “Booher.”7 Later, in December 2007, this assignment was corrected with a revised version of “Exhibit ‘A’.” The corrected December 2007 assignment specified that Chambers owned “an undivided fifty percent (50%) interest in those Oil, Gas and Mineral Leases, Deeds and Properties described on Exhibit ‘A’ attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes.” The December 2007 corrected assignment added “McShane Fee” and “Brice” (but not “Boo-her”) to the property listed on “Exhibit ‘A’,” bringing the total number of assigned leases to eight. The descriptions for all eight leases were revised from the previous documentation.8

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Tanya L. McCabe Trust, McCabe Family Trust, and the Rochford Living Trust v. Ranger Energy LLC, 531 S.W.3d 783 (Tex. Ct. App. 2016).

531 S.W.3d 783 (Tanya L. McCabe Trust, McCabe Family Trust, and the Rochford Living Trust v. Ranger Energy LLC) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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