Crum v. Yoder
| Decision Date | 26 October 2020 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 20 MO 0005 |
| Citation | 2020 Ohio 5046 |
| Parties | BETTY MORRIS CRUM et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. ADEN M. YODER et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
OPINION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY
Atty. Aaron Bruggeman, Atty. Craig Sweeney, Bricker & Eckler LLP, 258 Front Street, Marietta, Ohio 45750 for Plaintiffs-Appellants and
Atty. Melissa Schumacher, Atty. Richard Yoss, Yoss Law Office, LLC, 122 North Main Street, Woodsfield, Ohio 43793 and Atty. J. Fraifogl, Atty. Timothy Pettorini, Roetzel & Andress, LPA, 222 South Main Street, Suite 400, Akron, Ohio 44308 for Defendants-Appellees
{¶1} Plaintiffs-Appellants Betty Morris Crum et al. ("the Morris heirs") appeal the decision of the Monroe County Common Pleas Court denying their motion for summary judgment. Seeking a declaratory judgment, they asked the trial court to find their mineral interest was not abandoned under the 2006 Dormant Mineral Act. Specifically, the Morris heirs argued the mineral interest was not abandoned because the 2011 notice of abandonment was invalidly served by publication and/or there was a savings event in a 1994 deed. In denying their summary judgment motion, the trial court issued legal holdings rejecting these arguments and essentially issued a declaratory judgment against the Morris heirs and in favor of Defendants-Appellees Aden Yoder, LL&B Headwater I, LP, and Doubledown LLC. We therefore find the trial court issued a final appealable order.
{¶2} For the reasons expressed herein, the assignments of error set forth by the Morris heirs are overruled, the trial court's judgment is affirmed, and judgment is entered in favor of Appellees.
{¶3} Ernie Morris conveyed approximately 60 acres in Monroe County to himself and his wife, Louise I. Morris, "for their joint lives, remainder to the survivor thereof" in a quit-claim deed recorded on January 21, 1987. (Vol. 192, P. 818). On July 25, 1990, Ernie and Louise I. Morris recorded a deed transferring the surface of the property with a clause stating: "Grantors except and reserve for theirselves and their heirs and assigns all oil and gas royalty, all oil and gas, together with all leasing rights." (Vol. 201, P. 833).
{¶4} The six grantees listed in the 1990 surface deed were Robert E. Morris, Sara Lallathin, Betty Crum, Byron Morris, Kenneth Morris, and Rodney Morris; their tax mailing address was a Belmont County address (c/o one of the grantees). The grantees were the children of Ernie and Louise Morris, but this was not specified in the deed. With his wife still living, Ernie Morris died intestate in Monroe County on March 12, 1994.
{¶5} In a deed recorded June 13, 1994, the Morris children conveyed the subject property to the Kuhns; this deed contained a word-for-word recitation of the aforequoted mineral reservation from the 1990 deed. (Vol. 6, P. 83). In a deed recorded on May 21, 1997, the Kuhns conveyed the property to Aden and Emma Yoder; the 1990 mineral reservation was repeated. (Vol. 31, P. 849). Louise Morris died intestate in 2001.
{¶6} In May 2011, the Yoders' attorney researched the title of the mineral interest underlying the property owned by the Yoders and found it was reserved by Ernie and Louise Morris in the 1990 deed. The names of Ernie and Louise Morris were used to search the Monroe County deed records, lease records, preservation notice indexes, official records, and probate records.
{¶7} On May 12, 2011, the Yoders published a notice of abandonment in the local newspaper addressed to Ernie Morris and Louise I. Morris and their "unknown heirs, devisees, executors, administrators, relicts, next of kin, and assigns" stating the described mineral interest was abandoned due to lack of activity. See R.C. 5301.56(E)(1) (2006 Dormant Mineral Act). On June 20, 2011, the Yoders filed an affidavit of abandonment with the county recorder. See R.C. 5301.56(E)(2). No timely response (by claim to preserve or affidavit) was filed. See R.C. 5301.56(H)(1) (). In a July 13, 2011 letter, the Yoders instructed the recorder to memorialize the abandonment by making a notation in the margin of the 1990 deed. See R.C. 5301.56(H)(2).
{¶8} Thereafter, the Yoders transferred one-half of the mineral interest underlying the subject 60 acres (and an unrelated 9 acres) to LL&B Headwater I, LP ("LL&B"). This deed was recorded on July 23, 2013. (Vol. 248, P. 118). In a deed recorded September 9, 2016, the Yoders transferred 10 acres of the mineral interest under the subject property to Doubledown, LLC ("Doubledown"). (Vol. 341, P. 106).
{¶9} The Yoders then transferred the property to Anthony and Kathy Gentile in a deed recorded on September 19, 2016. This deed contained no reservation in favor of the Yoders and noted their transfers of one-half of the mineral interest to LL&B and 10 acres of the mineral interest to Doubledown. (Vol. 341, P. 721).
{¶10} In 2015, the Morris heirs recorded mineral leases with Antero Resources Corporation regarding the mineral interest which the Morris children inherited from their parents. Lease ratification and amendment documents were recorded in 2017. On July 13, 2018, Betty Crum Morris recorded an "Affidavit of Claim to Preserve Mineral Interests" on behalf of herself and the other Morris children (or the heirs of those who had died).
{¶11} In a complaint filed in December 2018 and amended twice in 2019,1 the Morris heirs asked for a declaration that the mineral interest was not abandoned because the notice of abandonment was invalidly served and/or the 1994 deed (wherein the Morris heirs sold the property with language reserving the minerals) was a savings event as the minerals were the subject of a recorded title transaction. (The complaint mentioned quiet title in the heading of a section on deficient notice.) The complaint named the following defendants (who are the Appellees herein): Aden Yoder (who published the notice of abandonment and recorded the affidavit of abandonment along with his wife who had since died); LL&B (who purchased one-half of the minerals from Yoder); and Doubledown (who purchased 10 acres of the mineral interest from Yoder).
{¶12} The Gentiles (who purchased the property from Yoder) were also named as defendants; however, they thereafter relinquished any mineral interest which may have transferred when Yoder conveyed the property to them. They conceded in a January 2, 2020 agreed judgment entry that the Morris heirs still owned the minerals because the notice of abandonment was statutorily deficient.
{¶13} Yoder filed a counterclaim seeking an opposing declaratory judgment and asserted a slander of title claim (due to the recording of the 2018 affidavit). LL&B filed a similar counterclaim against the Morris heirs seeking declaratory relief and quiet title asto the one-half portion of the minerals obtained from Yoder in the 2013 deed and alleging slander of title (citing the recording of the 2018 affidavit and the 2015 and 2017 lease documents). LL&B asserted a cross-claim against Yoder for breach of warranty of title (in the event the Morris heirs were successful).2
{¶14} The Morris heirs filed a motion for summary judgment on all claims and counterclaims. They alleged the 2011 notice of abandonment was deficient because Yoder did not attempt service by certified mail and did not engage in reasonable diligence in identifying heirs. It was noted that the 1990 deed from Ernie and Louise Morris, which first reserved the minerals, transferred the property to six grantees, four of whom had the same last name as the grantors. It was urged that a reasonable person would have researched these grantees to ascertain if they were the heirs of Ernie and Louise Morris.
{¶15} An affidavit of Betty Morris Crum confirmed the grantors' parental relationship to the surface grantees in the 1990 deed, the dates of death for Ernie and Louise Morris, and the fact that they died intestate. She attached the obituaries, which she said were published in the local newspaper, and pointed out that the heirs were identified in those obituaries. The Morris heirs also submitted the affidavit of a title examiner who said: she noticed how four of the six surface grantees shared the same last name as the grantors; she conducted a general internet search in 2016 on Google for Ernie and Louise Morris in Monroe County; and within minutes, she found their obituaries in the local newspaper which contained "the names and potential locations for their children, being those same individuals identified as grantees in the 1990 Deed."
{¶16} The Morris heirs attached Yoder's discovery responses which said: Yoder's attorney conducted the title work as to the mineral interest in May 2011; before publishing the notice of abandonment, they attempted to identify heirs by searching the name of Ernie Morris and the name of Louise Morris in the Monroe County deed records, lease records, preservation notice indexes, official records, and probate records; the names of Ernie and Louise Morris were also used to search the Belmont County probate records; no research was performed as to the surface grantees in the 1990 deed; the deed did notindicate they were heirs; no internet search was conducted to identify potential heirs of Ernie or Louise Morris; and certified mail was not attempted at the address of Ernie and Louise Morris set forth in the 1990 deed.
{¶17} The summary judgment motion filed by the Morris heirs alternatively argued that the 1994 deed, wherein they transferred the property to Yoder's predecessor, constituted a savings event occurring within twenty years of the 2011 notice of abandonment. Although the 1994 deed repeated the original 1990 mineral severance word-for-word, the Morris heirs argued it was...
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