With apologies to Click and Clack, from time to time I will post “puzzlers”, questions about title and similar issues that have no apparent answer. Here is the first one:
Joe Bob Joiner owns a non-participating royalty interest under a tract. The amount of interest he owns is tied to the amount of royalty stated in any lease affecting the tract. (i.e. he retains “½ x 3/16 lessor’s royalty”). Daisy Bradford, the owner of 100% of the minerals on the tract, believes it is her destiny to be the H. L. Hunt of the 21st century and decides to go into the oil business by developing the minerals herself. Therefore there is no oil and gas lease on the tract. She drills a well and, lo and behold, it is a producer! What interest does Joe Bob the NPRI owner have in production from the tract?