Oklahoma · 16 O.S. §§66, 67, 82–83Oklahoma mineral interests passed by heirship affidavit: the ten-year rule

Oklahoma's title statutes aim to let purchasers rely on the county records, requiring adverse claimants to record their claims (16 O.S. §66). After the death of an owner of a severed mineral interest, a person claiming that interest through an affidavit of death and heirship recorded under §§82 and 83 acquires valid and marketable title as against adverse claimants, and so does a purchaser for value from that person or from someone claiming through a recital of death and heirship in a recorded title transaction (§67(A)–(B)). The conditions: the affidavit or recital states that the decedent died without a will, or that the will was never probated in Oklahoma (with a copy attached), or that the mineral interest was omitted from the final probate decree (with the will and decree attached); it lists the heirs and their relationship to the decedent; the maker is related to the decedent or has personal knowledge; it has been recorded for at least ten years in the county clerk's office; and no instrument inconsistent with the stated heirship was filed during those ten years (§67(C)). The rule doesn't apply against a person in possession of the land, personally or through a tenant, when the purchaser acquires the interest (§67).