Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 7:19

IANAL. I Am Not A Lawyer

Don't expect any help from the oil company, the police, the courts, etc. to resolve this. Assume that they really don't care.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things where you've got to get a lawyer involved and spend money. You probably need to be sure that the succession does not occur. Get a lawyer right away. Be SURE to file an objection of some sort to the succession before it occurs.

Sad to say, people DO steal property all the time with phony claims on estates and get away with it. Even if they get caught, they rarely face any significant legal consequences.

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Permalink Reply by LN on June 4, 2010 at 7:28

Hi Mac. Thanks for answering me.

This is my problem. I posted earlier that I was having trouble finding an atty. Some were recommended, but, most, except for one, had a conflict of interest.

Hopefully, this one atty. is affordable. If not, what in the world can I do? How do I stop the succession because I am living in the midwest. Can you recommend an atty. who could handle this for me?

TIA.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 7:51

Sorry, I'm not really familiar with who's a good local attorney.

If you can't find a good O&G attorney, you might be able to use a succession attorney on the succession matter. I'm not really familiar enough with this kind of case to figure out how much O&G experience you need to fight the succession matter.

I believe that succession cases can be really ugly.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 4, 2010 at 7:52

Mac,

no one fights like familiy...especially when money is involved.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 7:58

Amen, brother Baron.

One of the sad things I've found out later in life is how often you'll be stabbed in the back by relatives or people you consider friends. Far too often, someone who seems to be be OK turns out to have a Mr. Hyde to go with his Dr. Jekyll.

Luckily, I haven't been betrayed that much myself, but I've seen lots of people who have.

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 4, 2010 at 7:48

I am confused.

Is he a cousin or not??? Who is working on the succession? have you alerted the judge of this alleged adverse claim??

The oil company will have a title attourney reveiw the public record to determine ownership. They will pay based on what the public record dictates. Is the property of question subject to a Judgement of possesion?

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Permalink Reply by LN on June 4, 2010 at 8:02

He is a cousin who was raised by our deceased relative. However, she never legally adopted him.

This cousin is working on this succession. How and what judge do I contact regarding this?

I am new to this ordeal and am not familiar with the judgement of possesion---please explain this.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your help :-)

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 8:19

IANAL and I'm WAY out of my depth here. You probably do need a lawyer here.

I believe that

Succession is the term for the process that determines who owns the property of a deceased party.

Judgment of Possession is the court order that states what happens to the property.

Is that what you're asking?

Consider how you are going to prove that the cousin was NOT legally adopted.

Maybe someone else with better legal knowledge will comment, but I think that the "court" may not be that interested in doing any investigation of the documents, unless the fraud is obvious. They probably won't do anything like do handwriting analysis, checking with other family members, etc. You probably have to do the work to challenge the claims yourself. You can't count on the court to investigate.

Does anyone know if an ordinary Joe can contact the judge and effectively raise concerns about a succession without a lawyer representing them? Can you raise the questions and lawyer up later if necessary? Does the judge try to resolve things or is he simply the blind sword of justice weighing the formal process?

Once again, if the judgment of possession gets signed, it makes it a lot harder for you to challenge things later. If you don't object during the succession process, you MAY lose some of your rights to object later.

By the way, is the property in Louisiana? Law varies a lot from state to state.

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Permalink Reply by Stevew on June 4, 2010 at 8:02

Barron's right - the title lawyers look at everything. They will spot fake documents because they won't be registered at the right time at the courthouse (adoptions are registered too)

However, you could get several close relatives/friends of the deceased together and have them sign a notarized paper telling what children the relative actually had. It should say that "so and so has ____ natural children and ___ adopted children".

I am not a lawyer but this could be hard for your cousin to pull off with all the title oversight that the oil compaies lawyers do. There could also be weird laws around when someone is raised by a relative not really their's. I feel for both of you. I might have done the same thing if I was your cousin.

PS: Barron said one of the wisest thing I've read on this board yet: "no one fights like family...especially when money is involved." That is so true.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 8:24

If the cousin files fraudulent papers and gets a judgment of possession, will the oil company care about fraudulent documents? If the judgment of possession gets signed, wouldn't it stand until the other claimants successfully challenge it?

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Permalink Reply by The_Baron on June 4, 2010 at 8:58

Yes, it would be prudent to hold up if there is questionable ownership. However, Mac is correct, if a succession was completed, and a JOP was filed (it would be signed by a judge) then the title attorneys would be obligated to accept it. Then the parties who believe it to be eroneous would have file suit to contest the JOP.

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Permalink Reply by Mac Davis on June 4, 2010 at 9:09

GoshDarn, will you stop shouting in every post? 8-)

Hopefully, the local D.A. would take an interest, but I get the impression that they really don't care unless you hand them an airtight case on a silver platter and probably not even then. There's no money in it for them, and it might require them to actually do some investigation. An acquaintance claimed she had a similar situation and they wouldn't even look into it, even though the signature on the document was "obviously" forged. Her only option was to fight it in civil court at her expense. Of course, I only heard her side of the story.

You can try involving law enforcement, but they may just decide it's a civil matter, not criminal, and not do anything about it, unless you have something that makes them want to pursue it. They have "real" crimes like robbery, assault, etc. along with revenue generating traffic enforcement, as well as donuts that need to be properly handled.

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