Ohio.
My mother's brother inherited all of my grandparents farm land. He died prematurely and the land then went to my cousins (his 2 sons)....not to the remaining 3 children. However, my grandmother had in her will that the mineral rights to the existing wells will remain with her children and their heirs, "now and forever more".
BUT, with all this oil craze going on, my cousin had the wells declared "abandoned", so that my mother and her sisters now have no rights to any of the mineral rights.
Question: What is the procedure to do so...regarding notifying all parties involved?
I thought I once read that if the person abandoning the well knows how to reach the parties involved (phone number, address, etc), then they must attempt to reach them in that manner. Only if they do not know how to reach them, then the last resort is to post a series of notices in the local newspaper.
Posting in the newspaper is all my cousin did. Of course, my mother lives 100 miles away, and does not get that particular newspaper. So, he removed her and her sisters without their knowledge, so that he could have ALL the mineral rights to all the land/wells.
My grandmother would be turning in her grave! I have always valued family and am so disappointed that my cousin would allow his greed to do this.
Those minerals rights were all my mother had left of what once belonged to her parents.
Please advise. Does she have a case because he failed to notify her?
My mother's brother inherited all of my grandparents farm land. He died prematurely and the land then went to my cousins (his 2 sons)....not to the remaining 3 children. However, my grandmother had in her will that the mineral rights to the existing wells will remain with her children and their heirs, "now and forever more".
BUT, with all this oil craze going on, my cousin had the wells declared "abandoned", so that my mother and her sisters now have no rights to any of the mineral rights.
Question: What is the procedure to do so...regarding notifying all parties involved?
I thought I once read that if the person abandoning the well knows how to reach the parties involved (phone number, address, etc), then they must attempt to reach them in that manner. Only if they do not know how to reach them, then the last resort is to post a series of notices in the local newspaper.
Posting in the newspaper is all my cousin did. Of course, my mother lives 100 miles away, and does not get that particular newspaper. So, he removed her and her sisters without their knowledge, so that he could have ALL the mineral rights to all the land/wells.
My grandmother would be turning in her grave! I have always valued family and am so disappointed that my cousin would allow his greed to do this.
Those minerals rights were all my mother had left of what once belonged to her parents.
Please advise. Does she have a case because he failed to notify her?