Leathers v. Leathers, et al., No. 08-12123-MLB, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24901 (D. Kan. Feb. 27, 2014)

(decedent owned mineral interests which were distributed equally to two brothers with one brother's share reduced to one-fourth after brother's ex-wife received 50 percent of his 50 percent share; the brother owning a one-fourth mineral interest failed to file federal income tax returns for 1997 and 1999-2005 and IRS filed notices of federal tax liens (NFTLs) in the spring of 2005 for tax years 1997-2002 and another NFTL for the same years in September of 2006; on Oct. 6, 2006, the brother with the 1/4 mineral interest transferred his mineral interest to a trust; IRS moved to foreclose its liens; court determined that IRS had priority over royalties from brother's mineral interest with respect to those royalties for which the IRS liens were perfected before the brother's transfer of his mineral interest to the trust; with respect to the IRS lien filed in 2008, lien did not attach to brother's mineral interest because it had been transferred to the trust and lien only attached to brother's 45 percent interest in the trust, but not the trust's share of mineral interest royalties; IRS did not allege that transfer to trust was a fraudulent transfer)