OPINION
{1} Plaintiffs appeal from an order awarding summary judgment against them, denying their claims for an accounting and damages, and dismissing their petition to quiet title to a mineral leasehold in approximately 2560 acres of land located in Lea County, New Mexico. The central issue presented on appeal is whether the trial court erred in awarding summary judgment to Defendants and denying Plaintiffs’ claims.
{2} Defendants have also filed a cross-appeal, alleging that the trial court erred in granting Plaintiffs’ partial motion for summary judgment and finding, as a matter of law, that a 1927 drilling and operating agreement signed by J.M. Skaggs in favor of Marland Oil Company of Colorado (Marland) was void ab initio because of the failure of J.M. Skaggs’ wife to join in the agreement as mandated by New Mexico’s former statute requiring the joinder of spouses in conveying a community interest on realty. 1 We affirm the award of summary judgment entered in favor of Defendants. For the reasons discussed herein, our resolution of this issue renders the issues asserted in the cross-appeal moot.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL POSTURE
{3} On June 5, 1926, J.M. Skaggs was granted a prospecting permit by the United States Department of the Interior to prospect for and to produce oil and gas on the acreage in question. J.M. Skaggs was married to Mary Maye Skaggs when he acquired the federal permit.
{4} On February 23, 1927, J.M. Skaggs entered into a drilling and operating agreement with Marland for the lands involved herein. The agreement gave Marland the right to explore, drill, develop, produce, and market any oil and gas discovered on the property, and retain 87.5% of all the oil and gas produced therefrom. A true copy of the 1927 drilling and operating agreement attached to the motion for summary judgment submitted by Conoco, Inc. and other Defendants does not contain the signature of, or indicate that, Mary Maye Skaggs joined in the 1927 drilling and operating agreement.
{5} After J.M. Skaggs executed the 1927 operating agreement, he conveyed all of the royalty interest retained by him to third parties. From 1927 to 1930, J.M. Skaggs cooperated with Marland in obtaining extensions from the Department of Interior for the prospecting permit. On November 6, 1936, J.M. Skaggs and Mary Maye Skaggs were divorced in Gray County, Texas.
{6} Marland assigned its interest in the operating agreement to Continental Oil Company (Continental), which subsequently assigned portions of its interest to certain other named Defendants. On July 2, 1937, the Department of Interior issued an oil and gas lease involving the property in question. After securing several extensions, Continental discovered oil on the property in 1937. Following this discovery, J.M. Skaggs informed the Secretary of Interior that he objected to the issuance of the lease to Continental and other Defendants, and refused to assist in the applications for issuance of a lease for the property. The Department of Interior, however, issued the lease to Continental and its assignees, subject to the provisions of the 1927 operating agreement.
{7} On January 28, 1994, Plaintiffs filed suit against Defendants to quiet title to the property in question, and sought an accounting and damages for the oil produced from the property. Plaintiffs moved for partial summary judgment seeking an adjudication that the 1927 operating agreement signed by J.M. Skaggs was void as a matter of law. Defendants also filed motions for summary judgment, asserting that, as a matter of law, Plaintiffs’ claims were barred by the statute of limitations, and the doctrines of laches, ratification, waiver, estoppel, or acquiescence. Following the filing of cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court ruled, as a matter of law, that the 1927 operating agreement was void, but that Plaintiffs’ claims were barred by both laches and the statutes of limitations contained in NMSA 1978, §§ 37-1-3 (1975) and 37-1-4 (1880).
DISCUSSION
{8} Plaintiffs assert that the trial court erred in denying their claim to quiet title to the property in question and denying their claim for an accounting and damages. In furtherance of this argument, Plaintiffs contend that the 1927 operating agreement created an express trust, giving rise to a fiduciary relationship between the parties, and that the statutes of limitations relied upon by the trial court were tolled until the trust agreement was repudiated. Plaintiffs further argue that because Defendants have never repudiated the trust, the defenses of laches and statute of limitations are inapplicable.
{9} Prior to the entry , of its order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants, the trial court sent a letter to the parties detailing its reasons for denying Plaintiffs’ claims. The trial court stated that it was granting Defendants’ partial motion for summary judgment and rejecting Plaintiffs’ claim of the existence of a fiduciary relationship, and that:
The long delay — almost sixty (60) years since the 1927 operating agreement — and the clear awareness of the 1927 operating agreement by Mary Maye Skaggs and her heirs appears, as the ... Defendants claim, to be “a textbook example of the circumstances calling for the application of the laches defense.”
{10} Our review of the record indicates the existence of undisputed material facts from which the trial court could properly award summary judgment in favor of Defendants as a matter of law. The record discloses that after J.M. Skaggs obtained the prospecting permit to the lands in question in 1927, he entered into a drilling and operating agreement with Marland. Within a year of execution of that agreement, J.M. Skaggs conveyed all of the royalty interest retained by him under the 1927 operating agreement to third parties who ultimately assigned or conveyed their interests to Defendants herein. 2
{11} It is undisputed that Mary Maye Skaggs wrote to the Department of Interior in 1951 and inquired concerning the status of any interests her husband had in the Lea County property. By letter dated September 25, 1951, the Department of Interior responded to her inquiry advising her that its records revealed that on February 23, 1927, J.M. Skaggs entered into an operating agreement with Marland and such operating agreement was later assigned to Continental and others. The 1951 letter also advised Mary Maye Skaggs that, under the terms of the operating agreement, J.M. Skaggs was to receive an overriding royalty of 7 1/2% on all production from the lands in the lease and that:
[I]t appears that Mr. Skaggs assigned the entire 7 1/2% overriding royalty in the (a) lease to various parties and therefore, he no longer holds any royalty interest in either of these leases. So far as the records show, Mr. Skaggs owns no other oil or gas leases on the public domain. [Emphasis added.]
{12} Plaintiffs do not dispute that Mary Maye Skaggs received this letter advising her of her former husband’s execution of the operating agreement and his subsequent assignment of his interests therein. Thereafter, no action was brought by either her or her heirs to contest such transfers until 1994 when her heirs initiated the present action. J.M. Skaggs died on December 12, 1960, and Mary Maye Skaggs died on September 12, 1973.
{13} Plaintiffs’ claims were filed over sixty years after J .M. Skaggs transferred the royalty interests, and over forty years after the notification to Mary Maye Skaggs of the fact of such transfers. Under these circumstances, where it is evident that Mary Maye Skaggs was placed on notice of the fact that the records showed that J.M. Skaggs had transferred such royalty interests, where an extended period of time has transpired during which there was no attempt to enforce any rights claimed by Plaintiffs therein, and where Defendants invested substantial sums in prospecting and developing oil from such properties, the trial court could properly find the doctrine of laches to be applicable. The decision to apply laches is left to the sound discretion of the trial court which we review only for an abuse of discretion. See Archuleta v. Pina,
{14} Laches will lie when, in addition to other factors, there has been an unexplainable delay of such duration in asserting a claim as to render enforcement of such claim inequitable. Larson v. Undem,
{15} It is undisputed that both Mary Maye Skaggs and J.M. Skaggs, and other key witnesses, are no longer living and the claims sought to be litigated had their genesis over a half-century earlier. See Foster v. State,
{16} We deem the observations of the Montana Supreme Court in Lowrance v. Gunderson,
{17} Plaintiffs vigorously argue, however, that the trial court erred in granting Defendants’ defense of laches. They claim that a fiduciary relationship existed between the parties by reason of the 1927 operating agreement and the issuance of the 1937 leases indicating that Continental and other Defendants held such leases as “trustees for J.M. Skaggs.” Plaintiffs assert that because Continental and other Defendants were trustees, the time for filing such claims was tolled until and unless Defendants repudiated such trust. Plaintiffs, citing Oldland v. Gray,
{18} Although Plaintiffs correctly interpret the foregoing cases as recognizing that execution of certain types of agreements may indeed give rise to the existence of a fiduciary relationship, the trial court here properly determined that the circumstances existing here supported Defendants’ claim of laches. In 1951 Mary Maye Skaggs wrote to the Department of Interior inquiring about the status of J.M. Skaggs’ exploration lease. The Department of Interior responded informing her that “Mr. Skaggs assigned the entire 7 overriding royalty in the (a) lease to various parties and therefore, he no longer holds any royalty interest in either of these leases.” Because Mary Maye Skaggs was placed on notice that any royalty interest in the property had been transferred, there was nothing left upon which one could impute the existence of a trust. Additionally, the doctrine of laches incorporates the equitable maxim that “Equity Aids the Vigilant” McClintock, supra § 28, at 71. We agree with the trial court that the long delay (1951 to 1994) by Plaintiffs in asserting their claims “makes the laches and limitations defenses viable on the part of the ... Defendants.”
{19} We assume, but do not decide, that the operating agreement here which granted an exclusive right to drill on real estate in accordance with a federal oil and gas lease, conveyed an interest in realty so as to bring such instrument within the purview of the then existing statute requiring the joinder of spouses under the circumstances described in 1915 New Mexico Laws, Chapter 84, Section 16. See Rock Island Oil & Ref. Co. v. Simmons,
{20} Lastly, Plaintiffs argue that the trial court erred in refusing their discovery requests and denying them access to title opinions or title reports relating to the subject acreage, and opinions or title reports in the possession of Defendants concerning the operating agreement or the leases. Defendants objected to the production of this information based on the attorney-client privilege.
{21} Plaintiffs contend Defendants waived such privilege by pleading affirmative defenses which place the contents of those documents in issue. We disagree. Title opinions have generally been recognized to be privileged communications. See, e.g., Texaco, Inc. v. Phoenix Steel Corp.,
CONCLUSION
{22} The order granting summary judgment in favor of Defendants is affirmed.
{23} IT IS SO ORDERED.
Notes
. The statute relied upon by Appellants in this case, 1915 New Mexico Laws, Chapter 84, Section 16, was repealed by 1973 New Mexico Laws, Chapter 320, Section 14. A current version of the prior law was reenacted by 1973 New Mexico Laws, Chapter 320, Section 8.
. The trial court's letter to counsel noted that
Skaggs along with his wife conveyed all of the royalty interest retained under the 1927 operating agreement. This was accomplished on November 28, 1927 when they assigned a partial interest to C.H. Kyte, on February 29, 1928, when they assigned a second partial interest to Kyte, and on February 29, 1928, when they assigned a third partial interest to Western Mineral Deed Association. All three assignments were executed by Skaggs and his spouse, Mary Maye Skaggs.
. An affidavit of Paul Eyster, submitted in support of Conoco’s motion for summary judgment, recited in part that he is a supervisor in Exploration Production Accounting for Conoco, and based on his personal knowledge that since 1937 there have been numerous oil and or gas completions on the land in question.
. Defendants' brief-in-chief acknowledges that the issues raised in their cross-appeal need only be addressed in the event this Court does not affirm the trial court's determination that Plaintiffs’ claims are barred on the defenses recognized by the trial court.