Court Opinion

ID: 9682323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:09:28.253839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:38.766952
License: Public Domain

David Newbern, Justice, dissenting. I disagree with that part of the majority opinion which characterizes as “minor” the failure of Tait C. and Wanda Page to give notice of the change in ownership as required by the lease. I have no quarrel with the authority cited in the majority opinion. In the context of a suit in which the reason asserted for not paying proceeds is confusion as to the identity of the lessor, failure to give the notice of change in ownership should not be regarded as minor. The majority opinion, in my view, does not take sufficient cognizance of the relationship between the failure to give the required notice and the refusal to execute a division order or a stipulation of interest as well as the conveyance to yet a third party. Not only did the Pages convey their lessor’s interest to the corporation without notice, but they caused the corporation to convey the lessor’s interest to a limited partnership “for tax purposes,” again without notice. I agree the lessee cannot require the lessor to execute a division order, but I cannot agree to take lightly the apparent assertion of the majority that the lessee had a duty to pay the mineral proceeds to the corporation because of the lessee’s knowledge of the title obtained from its attorney. Execution of the required notice of change in ownership would have eliminated at least the question of whether Tait C. and Wanda Page or Page Farms, Inc. was to be the recipient of the lease proceeds. A title opinion is no more than that. TXO had no duty to ascertain the title or to rely on its attorney’s opinion. Apparently the title opinion did not reflect the transfer to Page Farms, Ltd. If the payment had been made to Page Farms, Inc., while title was in the limited partnership, TXO would have been subjected to a claim by the partnership, because it held title, as well as a claim by the Pages as individual lessors. The breach of the lease agreement resulting from failure to give notice to the lessee of sale of the lessor’s interest did not excuse TXO from payment, but in my opinion it did excuse the delay for which TXO is being unfairly penalized in this case. Therefore, I respectfully dissent. Holt, C.J., joins in this dissent.