Court Opinion

ID: 9528591
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:42:13.686672+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:04.344898
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
Because, as the majority opinion recognizes, mineral and royalty interests are separate property interests with different characteristics, Texaro Oil Co. v. Mosser, 299 N.W.2d 191 (N.D.1990), it would not be unreasonable to conclude, as did the district court, that the burden of the 6.5% *487royalty assignment was to be shared by all the owners of mineral acres in the 160 acres. Sullivan, in his Handbook of Oil and Gas Law, observes that “[a]s with mineral deeds, royalty conveyances take the form of designated fractions or a specified number of royalty acres. The same reasons for preferring royalty acres to a designated fractional interest apply in the case of royalty conveyances as in the case of mineral deeds.” In discussing the description in mineral acres at section 115 of his work, Sullivan observes:
“In the matter of describing the fractional interest conveyed, consideration should be given to whether a stipulated fraction should be used ... or whether the specified number of undivided acres out of the tract should be used.... When the conveyance is of a specified undivided fractional interest, the grant is made with respect to each part of the described premises, and a failure of title to a part of the land will decrease proportionately the interest acquired by the grantee. On the other hand, where the conveyance is of a specified number of mineral acres, the grantee would be entitled to the full number of mineral acres out of whatever the grantor owned. If the grantor owned more than the number of acres recited in the deed, of course, the use of a designated fraction would effect a proportionate increase in the interest acquired by the mineral grantee.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The same rationale might be applied here. But, insofar as there is a question as to who should bear the burden of the 6.5% royalty interest under the facts of this case, I concur with the majority that as a matter of equity heirs who take through the original grantor should bear the burden of the royalty interest in contrast to purchasers for value from the original grantor of a specified number of mineral acres. In this respect the equitable principles comparable to those applied in Man v. Schwan, 460 N.W.2d 131 (N.D.1990), and cases cited therein, are applicable.
Under a different set of facts, for example where the original grantor, after conveying a royalty interest conveys all the grantor’s remaining mineral acres or conveys mineral acres to the extent that the grantor no longer retains sufficient interest to satisfy the previously conveyed royalty interest, the result would be different. I write separately to note that the majority opinion does not, nor does it purport to resolve those factual situations. In such instances, depending upon the facts, the burden of the previously conveyed royalty interest might well be shared proportionately by the present mineral owners.