Utah- Oil & Gas

摘要

Some Quiet Title Actions Can Be Barred by Laches The Court of Appeals of Utah recently held that under some circumstances a quiet title action can be barred under the doctrine of laches. See Estate of Price v. Hodkin, 2019 UT App 137,447 P.3d 1285. In Hodkin, two sisters acquired property as joint tenants. The underlying title issue concerned whether, at the time of the first sister's death, the two sisters continued to own the property as joint tenants or the joint tenancy had been severed. Id. 2-3. At the time of the first sister's death, her heirs and the surviving sister treated her estate as retaining one-half of the mineral rights in the property, and apparently, no one at the time questioned whether the deceased sister's one-half interest passed to the surviving joint tenant. Id. f 4. For 47 years, the surviving sister and her successors continued to treat the heirs/successors of the predeceased sister as owning half the minerals.