Member Login
Search

History of TLMA

The Texas Land & Mineral Owners Association was created in 1999 by 54 founding members who wanted to level the playing field, to reinstate a sense of fairness in the relationship between those that use the land and those who live on it. The relationship between the oil and gas industry and landowners had become severely unbalanced as a result of political trends, regulatory and legislative actions, and court decisions. TLMA embarked on a mission to reverse these trends by directly advocating for land and mineral owners' interests, focusing predominantly on the Texas Legislature.
 
At the first meeting of the TLMA Board of Directors on January 5, 2000, the  board selected four galvanizing legislative issues for TLMA to advocate in its first legislative session in 2001. All issues were calculated to reduce litigation and improve property owners' standing to protect their rights.
 
» Reinstate the "discovery rule" protection that was taken away from landowners in a 1999 Texas Supreme Court decision. The statute of limitations should not begin to run until the facts giving rise to the claim are discovered, or could have been discovered with the exercise of reasonable diligence.
 
» Mandate an increase in the amount of information on royalty check stubs so royalty owner may verify that the royalty payment is accurate. Disputes over royalty payments were increasing due to insufficient information necessary to verify payments.
» Address the illegally-abandoned well problem. At the time, there were more than 26,000 orphaned wells  in Texas!
» Address mandatory venue for litigation. An appellate court decision had opened a loophole allowing oil and gas companies to "forum shop" and avoid the 1995 law that mandated venue in the county where the land or minerals are located.

Founding Board of Directors

Chairman - George Tanner - Mesteña, Inc.
Vice Chairman - Carolyn Frost Kennan - Keenan Family Interests
Director - The Honorable Dolph Briscoe - Briscoe Ranch
Director - Jack Hunt - King Ranch
Director - Roger Welder - J.F. Welder Heirs
Director - J. A. Whittenburg, III - Turkey Track Ranch

Founding District Vice Presidents

D.K. Boyd - Midland
Mark M. Landford - Houston
Jack Miller - Amarillo
Morgan Dunn O'Connor - Victoria
Barry Coates Roberts - San Antonio