156 Steger v. Muenster Drilling Co.

Richard F. Brown

 
The following is not a legal opinion. You should consult your attorney if the case may be of significance to you.
 
Steger v. Muenster Drilling Co., Inc., 134 S.W.3d 359 (Tex. App.–Fort Worth 2003, pet. denied) holds that a life tenant could grant oil and gas leases that extended beyond the life tenant’s lifetime. The  will granted a life estate to testator’s wife and provided:
 
It is my desire and I direct, that, Carrie T. Maddox, my wife, shall have fully power and authority and the same is hereby granted to her to, manage, control and lease for all purposes the real and personal estate herein after bequeathed during her life time and to extract therefrom all oil, gas and or other minerals during said period of her life estate as limited herein, and the further power and authority to manage and control jointly with her estate, all other property, collect and have the rents and revenues arising from the entire estate during the period of her life and she remaining unmarried after my death.
 
Although a life tenant ordinarily cannot convey an estate greater than one tied to the tenant’s life, the instrument conveying the life estate can confer greater powers upon the life tenant. Thus, a testator or grantor can give the life tenant power to execute oil and gas leases that extend beyond the life of tenant’s own lifetime.  The question is one of intent.
 
In Steger, the plain meaning of the words in the will showed testator’s intention to give the life tenants the power to execute oil and gas leases that extended beyond the life tenants’ lifetimes. The time limits placed on the authority to lease (lifetime) did not limit the type of lease which could be executed. The court also noted that the power to extract oil, gas, and other minerals, which testator expressly gave to the life tenants, is a power to dispose of the corpus. Under this will, the life tenant could dispose of all the oil and gas during their lifetime, which necessarily includes the power to execute oil and gas leases that extended beyond their lifetimes.
 
Although the general rule is that a life tenant cannot lease for beyond his life, the life tenant’s powers are derived from the instrument creating the life tenancy, and those specific powers may be greater than the powers held by life tenants generally.