ExxonMobil Chemical Co , 235 S. W. 3d. 615 (Tex – 2007)).
presumed to be true and (iii) a correction deed is notice to a subsequent buyer of the facts set forth in the correction instrument. Combining this language found in the statute with the Court’s decision, should title examiners, running an individual tract title, have been carrying forward each and every name of every person appearing to have owned an interest in the subject lands from and after its/ their acquisition of an interest in the examined lands down to the close of the title examination (or at least until each owner’s death, or if a corporate ownership, succession by merger where the surviving company is not the original owner of the interest) to eliminate the possibility that it/they entered into a subsequent correction deed and somehow changed the ownership of the subject lands? ANSWER: In the author’s opinion, YES.
Exhibit “B” is a small sample of what has to occur throughout the entire chain of title with each successive owner. That is, each successive owner in the chain of title must be run from the date of its/their acquisition of an interest in the subject lands down to the close of the run sheet to insure that, later in time, one or more of such owners did not participate in a correction deed somewhere in the chain of title. Even from the first conveyance into the patentee? Depends! What quality of title is the client company seeking to have confirmed in it by the title examiner/examining attorney? Is it possible that an early grantor/grantee could have entered into a correction deed which, under traditional title examination methodology, would have been missed (or not sought since it would not have been in a subsequent grantee’s chain of title)? Yes. Can the client company limit such title examination methodology to a certain time period? For example, 25 years prior to the closing date of the run sheet? Yes. How does such limitation on the title examination methodology affect the quality of title the client company is seeking (marketable title vs. defensible title vs. title failure)? Unknown. What is perplexing and unknown to the author is this: Is just the name(s) of the original party(ies) to each deed/assignment in the chain of title run forward down to the closing date of the run sheet? That is, if (i) an original party dies or (ii) a corporation is succeeded by merger, who, if anyone, could sign a correction deed? Going back to the facts in Broadway, assume: 1. After John received his one-fourth (1/4) mineral interest from the Bank in 2005, in 2006 he conveyed all of his right, title and interest to Fred Farkle. John died in 2010 testate. 2. Fred Farkle sold all of his royalty interest in and to oil and gas leases covering the lands at issue to Yates Energy in 2012.
Under the pre- Broadway title examination procedure:
1. The June 26, 2006 correction deed (No. 4 above), signed only by the Bank, would not have been located. Since the title examiner would have concluded that the Bank, as Trustee, no longer had any interest to convey, it would not have run the Bank forward in the deed records to see if it had made any additional conveyances. 2. The 2013 Correction Deed would never have been searched for. It simply was not in the grantee’s (John’s) chain of title. Therefore, a person running the title to a 25% undivided royalty interest thereafter conveyed by John to Yates Energy (5. above) in 2012 would not have looked for the 2013 Correction Deed filed later in time than the original deed into John (3. above) and/or the royalty deed into Yates Energy. That is, both the Bank and John, by their initial conveyances, no longer owned any interest of record in the subject lands as of the date of their conveyances. Their names would not have traditionally been run forward since their interests were no longer in a subsequent grantee’s chain of title. ( Westland Oil Development Corp v. Gulf Oil Corp , 637 S. W. 2d. 903 (Tex – 1982); Ford v.
3. In 2013, the Bank determined that it had made a material mistake in the 2005 deed and
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G rowth T hrough E ducat i on - J uly / A ugus t / S ept ember 2022
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