§ 15-73-304 - Court determinations, orders, and appointments.
15-73-304. Court determinations, orders, and appointments.
If the circuit court after the hearing shall determine that the lease should be executed, it shall enter an order authorizing the life tenant to execute the lease. The court shall:
(1) Determine the extent to which the estate of the life tenant may be damaged or impaired by the development and operations of the property for oil and gas, and the court may allow the life tenant as compensation all or any part of the consideration paid for the lease, and all or any part of the rentals which may accrue on account of delay in beginning operations, and the proportion of the oil, gas, and minerals in, on, and under the lands, not to exceed an undivided one-sixteenth (1/16) interest therein. The order of the court, upon the approval and confirmation of the lease as provided in 15-73-305, shall vest in such life tenant title absolute in fee simple in and to the proportionate part of the consideration, delay rentals, and mineral interest so awarded to him or her by the court, which interest shall be free and clear of any limitations, conditions, or restrictions imposed by the will or deed by which he or she acquired title, and free and clear of any present or future claim of any person or persons asserting or attempting to assert a reversional or a remainder interest therein on account of the deed or will;
(2) Appoint some suitable person as trustee for the benefit of the contingent remaindermen and reversioners, and require that the trustee shall execute bond in a sum as the court may deem proper;
(3) Direct and authorize the life tenant, after the filing of the bond by the trustee, to execute to the lessee an oil and gas lease covering the lands, which lease shall reserve as royalty not less than one-eighth (1/8) of the oil and gas which may be produced, saved, and marketed from the lands. Of the royalty so reserved, the life tenant shall receive the proportion as the mineral interest allowed to him or her by the court as damages bears to the amount of royalty reserved under the lease, i.e. if the court allows the life tenant a one-sixteenth (1/16) interest and the lease reserves one-eighth (1/8) as royalty, the life tenant would be entitled to receive one-half (1/2) of the royalty; and
(4) Make such further orders in the premises as may seem equitable and just.