South Dakota - Oil & Gas/Mining

摘要

Holsti v. Kimber, 2014 SD 21,2014 WL 1512426, involved matters of first impression in a dispute over whether a severed mineral interest had been abandoned due to nonuse. In 1967, Severt Kvalheim reserved 50% of all mineral rights when he conveyed certain real property in Harding County, South Dakota. Less than two years later, Kvalheim died at the age of 95 as a single man in North Dakota. Kvalheim's last will and testament devised a one-eighth interest in his estate to each of his eight heirs, but his estate was never probated in South Dakota and his mineral interest has never been conveyed to an heir or successor by a recorded instrument. 2014 SD 21, 2.