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your mother discussed these options to continue leasing
the properties?
A Well, as the years went on and Mother was
getting older and as a mother myself, my mother as I
would, want my children to always be equal. I would
want to be equal. She wanted to be equal and fair with
David and I. So she was very pleased at this point
that we had a fair, equal operation, each of us, and
she was happy that as she got older up until the last
year before she died she said, This is something I
would like to see you and your brother do for the rest
of your lives.
And--
* * * * * * *
But it was an agreement, verbal agreement,
but we were a close family. David and I were very
close and my mother and I and David were very close,
and this was her wish.
The estate asserts that Edwards and Carson “understood” from
their discussions with decedent prior to her death that each had
received a definite right and commitment from decedent to
continue to lease their respective ranch properties for an
indefinite time and each committed substantial resources to their
ranching operations based on their understanding. The belief of
Edwards and Carson as to what may have been the desire of their
mother is not an oral option to lease land for an indefinite
period of time. Decedent’s desire to have her children continue
the ranching operations on the Sinton Ranch and Cotulla Ranch is
not equivalent to the granting of an oral option to her children
to lease the ranch properties for an indefinite time. Decedent’s
desire to have her children continue the ranching operations was
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