Lease Assignment Conveyed Lease Not Listed in Exhibit

In Hogg v. Blackbeard Operating, 656 S.W.3d 671, 673 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2022, no pet.), the El Paso Court of Appeals evaluated an assignment of leases in Winkler County, Texas.

The owner of the minerals in question executed two leases for their interests, one in 1994 and one in 1998. In 2005, their lessee executed an assignment of leases to Standolind Oil and Gas.  The exhibit to the assignment listed the 1994 lease but not the 1998 lease.

The Court noted that the language of the assignment was broad. It assigned “all of the assignor’s interest in “the land conveyed by the Leases” and lands pooled therewith. The Court held that since 1998 lease covered must of the same land as the 1994 lease, and given the broad language of the assignment, the 1998 lease was covered by the assignment, even though it was not listed in the exhibit describing the property being assigned.

Another case that teaches us to be specific in the language used in conveyancing documents.