Broad form deed

As a legal document, the broad form deed severs a property into surface and mineral rights. This allows other individuals or organizations other than the land owners to purchase rights to resources below the surface. These parties also receive use of surface resources-such as wood or water- to facilitate gathering the resources below ground. Based on English legal theory but an American creation from the early 1900's, the broad form deed was used by land and coal companies in many states within the Appalachian Region.

An American creation, the broad form deed did more than just transfer the title of all the mineral rights along with mining rights. The holder was also granted rights to do what they deemed necessary to locate minerals, create any infrastructure needed to amass and relocate the minerals, utilize any resources on the land for mining purpose (like trees or water), and allowed the holder to not be held liable over any damages or the condition of the land and water during or after mining. Views of land ownership at the time typically considered the owner to own from the center of the earth to the sky above. The broad form deed altered this view legally which bears the question of what legal precedent was in place that allowed for this severance to occur.

The broad form deed is based on the premise of severing the surface and mineral rights of property. The precedence of this idea comes from English legal theory. In this theory the King retained rights to various minerals on landowners estates for the purposes of maintaining the operations of the country and as such the King had authority to mine for those minerals. This precedence goes back to at least 1567 when the Earl of Northumberland disputed the Queen of England's right to minerals on his estate. Many charters for American colonies included clauses dedicating specified amounts of precious metals to the crown. After the American Revolution states sought control of mineral rights, however laws regarding control and ownership of mineral rights shifted and changed over time. Pressure for materials to fuel the industrial revolution resulted in development of new applications of estate severance based on the previous concepts; this included the broad form deed.

The selling of mineral rights began before the creation of the broad form deed. During late 1880’s in East Tennessee the people that lived in the mountains were reported to be hospitable and open with the mineral buyers and travelers. This shifted to hostility by 1900 as they considered some methods by the companies to acquire land to be deceitful. An example of practices that distanced the locals was that of gaining the land by forcing the land to be sold at public auction. They did this by purchasing rights to land from one of several heirs and upon the other heirs refusing to sell using the court system to force the land to be sold.

As schoolteacher from rural eastern Kentucky, John CC Mayo managed to accumulate quite a bit of wealth by purchasing mineral rights. He began by entering into a partnership with two other men in 1892 after combining funds. Using deed books and knowledge gained from the Kentucky Wesleyan College library, Mayo was able to determine those who had property over the most promising mineral deposits and started making deals. These options or "agreement to purchase" depended on him gaining the capital to complete purchases within the specified time-frame. Over the years he had successes acquiring land and worked with many coal and steel companies to get the railroads into the area so that mining could be profitable. After facing controversy in Virginia over how land was acquired, Mayo crafted the broad form deed so that the companies he worked for more securely held the rights to mine the minerals.

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Wikipedia