The Grazing Lease

I just realized the Addendum that shows who gets paid what was not part of the recorded lease I have attached it below

From: malles@iceops.com [mailto:malles@iceops.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 4:52 PM
To: 'Shane Stokes'; 'Tommy Smithson'
Subject: 101215 Grazing lease

I thought all owners had agreed to the lease but the Hunting rights have thrown some rain (not a lot) on my parade. I’m working on that right now and think it will be resolved to Tommy’s satisfaction.

Shane, Attached is the info on who has to sign the contract - I sent an earlier email about my asking Tom Scott to use his POA to sign for the Price group and he said he wanted paper from you stating the Price group was requesting he sign for them - What do you need from me (us) for verification of that? All but one Price has email access.

Also attached is a payment list - My spreadsheet says we need to make the annual payment 1402.68 to come out even with 10 checks.

Tommy, For the McClintock side, as far as I can see, you will only be sending one check - to Pam. The new heirs on the block don’t have a agreement with her that I know of, but one of the older Mohler owners (same last name) just called me and said that’s how it is! _ I should know for sure by end of the week.

Mike Alles

From: malles@iceops.com [mailto:malles@iceops.com]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 7:12 PM
To: 'Shane Stokes'
Subject: RE: Draft Grazing Lease

Shane,

Thank you, that answers the questions succinctly. Ok, we will grant the ability to Tom, the Lessee, for hunting on the acreage. It is his cattle, his risk - but only if he uses the waivers if he sub leases.

Stand by for the signature block. For those outside TX - almost all, what do you need as verbiage for the notaries?

I am at 90% of getting who has to sign for our side - right now it is 8 signatures. (Tommy Smithson Lessee, and the Lessors: Tom Scott, Brad Miller, Pam Friend, and 4 others) I’m trying to reduce that through POAs.

Tom Scott has agreed to sign for the “Price” family (8). He has had POA for years but he wants to give it up - He has said he will sign only if you request it in writing - for his documentation purposes - the price group agrees to his signing. - What do you need for verification? - All Price but one has email access.

Miller will sign for his trust; Pam Friend will sign for 8 McClintock owners and we have 4 new heirs who I have yet to convince to go with POA with Pam.

Mike Alles

From: Shane Stokes [mailto:sstokes@lcalawfirm.com]
Sent: Monday, December 13, 2010 6:01 PM
To: malles@iceops.com
Subject: RE: Draft Grazing Lease

Mike:

I guess I didn’t see that whole e-mail. . . I probably got it while I was out of the office and didn’t mark it as “unread” to allow me to see it when I got back to the office.

The reason for addressing the hunting is two-fold. . . one is the liability issue, and the other is potential loss of income. Additionally, some people don’t mind leasing their property for grazing, but they don’t want the lessee to be hunting (or subleasing and letting someone else hunt) on their land. It can also be dangerous for hunting and grazing to go on in the same areas for the obvious reasons. I guess a calf and a deer can look a bit alike at a long distance!

To answer your question regarding the Waiver and Indemnification/Release-type documents, they are certainly usable and enforceable in Texas. I think it wise to have such a document for anyone who hunts on your land. If you, as Lessor, lease the lands to Lessee, and your lease allows for hunting, you should be insulated from liability because you have leased the surface to another person for such purposes. If you don’t lease it for hunting, and decide to allow hunting on the land yourself, there could be liability to the Lessee if any of his livestock was killed or injured in a hunt, or if anyone else was. In my opinion, it is better to either absolutely assign rights to hunt or not allow hunting at all, rather than to retain that right and try to sublease it yourself.

Does this make sense?

Shane

From: malles@iceops.com [mailto:malles@iceops.com]
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2010 11:02 AM
To: Shane Stokes
Subject: FW: Draft Grazing Lease

Shane,

I need to know why you specifically addressed the hunting issue. Was it solely Owner Liability, or also due to possible lost income stream to the owners?

On the question of Liability, if subleasing for hunting was allowed (within state regulations), are hunting releases, similar to ones of the attached, generally enforceable for our side in case of litigation.

Florida has an equestrian activities law that basically shelters owners/operators (while exercising due care of course) from liability because of the “inherent risk of equine activities”. Is there anything similar in Texas for hunting or for that matter, “equine activities”?

Mike

From: Tommy Smithson [mailto:tsmithson@lyntegar.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2010 9:03 PM
To: malles@iceops.com
Subject: Re: Draft Grazing Lease

Hey Mike! Glad we finally got this going. Thanks! The only part that I would even question is the hunting. I'm sending releases that we use at Ft Davis for you and your lawyer to scan. I know how dry it can get here and just want to know that if I need to hunt it to get lease money I can. Let me know what you think. Other than that I don't see anything that I can't sign off on. ( I know that from 1980 to 1985 we recorded .6 inches of rain)

Update 12/09/2010 - Main body of lease completed, waiting for lawyer to get back with some additional info. Tommy has agreed to pay half the Lawyer fee if we give him Hunting rights (he's had them previously. Miller is up to speed on situation, Tom Scott has agreed to sign for Price group and Pam can sign for all McClintock side except for John D. Mohler - John sees no reason for giving Pam his (and his siblings) POA. So, unless he changes his mind, he's just doubled the number of needed signatures on the final lease.

The income from the grazing lease to Tommy Smithson is enough to cover the property’s surface Ad Valorem taxes (and hopefully pay for the fee to draft the lease - grin.) The last fully written lease was dated 1967, and the current renewal I think expired this month. Anyway, Tommy wants a 5 year lease with a 5 year renewal option on paper so that he can get his bank to finance some improvements to the property - fencing and stuff. For the lease amount, in consultation with some of the larger interest owners and others in the area, an amount of $0.50 per acre per year was agreed on with a hand shake. I’ve contacted a lawyer (Shane Stokes) to draft the new lease. Tommy is willing to write 21 checks - one to each interest owner, the amount based on % interest held. I need Official names and addresses for all interest owners - Individuals or personal Trust w/ the Trustee information. I already have all of the Price Groups covered but am missing most of the McClintock owners full name and address information

Here is the rub: We currently have 21 signatures (plus Tommy’s) needed to enact a lease and that my friends make it a nightmare to get signed efficiently. The Shoemaker and Miller trusts are professionally managed so that’s 2 of the required signatures. I don’t know how many of the remaining McClintock members are covered by Power of Attorney with Pamela Friend but that situation, if still in effect, would reduce the remaining number needed. What I am purposing is that the 19 of us without professional management reduce the number just this one time using a very limited Power of Attorney(s) instrument(s) - one with just enough power to sign this one lease. The McClintock members need to work out among yourselves who you would be willing to give a POA to and who would accept the job - there could be more than one but please remember we are trying to keep the number down. I am anticipating the Price members will be willing to issue the propose POA to my wife, Cindel or myself. If the rest of you can bring yourselves to trust someone you don’t really know, I’d be willing to accept the assignment for this job this one time. As I said, it would be a very limited POA designed for this one event only and would not be in effect beyond that.

If you all are amendable to the POA idea in principle I will get the Attorney to draft up the body of the text of the POA. We can then generate as many copies as needed, and fill in the different names.

And again, I will still need the full name and address information for Tommy to write checks.

From: krlBus [mailto:krlbus@att.net]
Sent: Wednesday, December 01, 2010 11:29 AM
To: malles@iceops.com
Subject: Re: Pecos - Buy inquiry by RE agent

As far as I know (just spoke with Dad to confirm); I believe everyone in the Price Group, is is 100% in favor of the Limited Power of Attorney to "you or wife" to get things in order for Tommy (his lease on land) as soon as possible.

From: malles@iceops.com [mailto:malles@iceops.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 12:12 PM
To: Betsy Hull; Bill Roush ; Brent Harris -Tance son; Cindel Alles; Dennie Fry; James Roush ; Jim Mohler; John D Mohler; ken Lyle ; Kenneth Lyle; Laine Whitcomb; Lynda Morrison / Ruth May Bard ; Margery Lindsey; Pamela Friend ; Rae Aldridge; Rob Shoemaker; Sharon Thompson
Subject: Texas grazing lease

Please answer this email if you have not already spoken to or emailed me about the lease (covers about 5 of the 19 of you) - I can’t do this in a vacuum! - This is like herding cats-Grin

That leaves John D Mohler and his 3 siblings - I need their names and addresses and

If you are missing the email about the lease - call or email and I will get it to you. The actual lease has not yet been drawn up, I need to know whose names will be on it for signature. The lease will just be an updated version of the last one written in the 60’s. - I’m having as much trouble with lawyers getting back to me as I have with you all.- lopsided grin

Also check out www.iceops.com/pecos I am attempting to post info there that might be of interest to all owners.