Indianapolis Natural Gas Co. v. Pierce
Indianapolis Natural Gas Co. v. Pierce
Opinion of the Court
—Appellee brought this action on a gas lease executed by Isaac B. Anderson and Mary J. Anderson to J. M. Guffy & Co., assigned by said Anderson to appellee and assigned by Guffy & Co. to the Indianapolis Natural Gas Company, and by that gas company to the Indianapolis Gas Company. The cause was put at issue, a special finding
The errors separately assigned by appellants, the Indianapolis Hatural Gas Company and the Indianapolis Gas Company, are: (1) That the court erred in overruling the separate demurrers filed respectively by said appellants to the complaint; (2) in its conclusions of law on the facts found; (3) in overruling the motion for a new trial by each of the appellants. The following is a statement of the facts: On the 3rd of May, 1887, I. B. Anderson and Jennie Anderson executed a lease for five years to J. M. Guify and Company, granting to said Guffy and Company the- right to operate, store and transport petroleum oil or gas over and “from all that certain tract of land situated in Washington township, Hamilton county and State of Indiana, bounded and described as follows, to wit: On the north side hy the lands of J. Mendenhall, on the east hy the lands of S. M. Smith, on the west by the lands of William G. Pierce, on the south by the lands of S. M. Smith, containing thirty acres more or less, excepting and reserving therefrom twenty acres more or less, around the buildings, on said premises upon which there shall he no wells drilled by either parties, the boundaries of which shall be designated and fixed by the party of the first part,” reserving therefor the one-eighth part of all oil discovered, and in case gas only was discovered $100 for each well drilled, and in case no well was drilled $100 per annum was to be paid; Guify and Company assigned said lease to the Indianapolis Hatural Gas Company who assigned the same to the Hnion Trust Company of Hew York-and Lafayette Perkins of Indianapolis, who assigned the same to appellant, the Indianapolis Gas Company. After the five years limitation of said lease had expired, said I. B. Anderson and Jennie Anderson assigned a copy of said lease to appellee herein who commenced this action. Ho well was drilled under the lease, and no rent was paid:
Hnder the first specification of the assignment of errors,
By the assignment, the Andersons sold whatever right or interest they had by virtue of the contract assigned. The lease is dated May 31, 1881, and was for five years; the right of Guffy and Company and their assigns to enter upon the land expired May 3, 1892. The lease was no longer operative against the land at the time of its assignment to appellee. The Andersons could only look to the agreement contained in the lease whereby it was stipulated that the
A lease may be assigned by the lessor so as to give to the assignee the right to receive rent reserved without a sale or transfer of the reversionary interest. The doctrine of the common law that choses in action are not assignable does not obtain with us. Ridman & Lyons on Landl. & Ten. p. 439; Taylor on Landl. & Ten. §426; Willard v. Tillman, 2 Hill 274. It is averred that the assignment to appellee was made after the expiration of the lease. When the assignment was made to appellee, there was due under the contract in question to the Andersons the amount stipulated therein for the breach of the same. It was a chose in action. They had a right of action under the contract and when they assigned all their rights and interest therein, they assigned this right of action to appellee. The time for which the landVas leased having expired, there remained nothing but this right of action to be transferred. To hold that the assignment transferred only the original instrument would be toe narrow1 a construction. The authority cited by appellant is not applicable to the facts in the case at bar.
Appellants’ counsel discuss the second specification of the assignment of errors, viz., “that the court erred in its conclusions of law on the facts found,” and the first and third reasons for a new trial, together. The first reason for a new trial is because the decision of the court is contrary to law. The third is that the court erred in permitting plaintiff (appellee) to introduce in evidence, over defendants’ objection made at the time, the lease contract sued on in the complaint. The court found that “Anderson granted, demised and let unto J. M. Guffy and Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of drilling and opera
. The introduction of the lease in evidence was objected to for the reason that the description was so uncertain as to furnish no means of identifying the land to be conveyed, and for that reason was not enforcible. Conceding that the instrument in question was open to the objection, yet the court found, and the exception to the conclusions of law admits the correct finding of the facts: “The court further finds that pursuant to and in accordance with the terms of said contract I. B. Anderson on the 3rd day of May, 1887, and immediately after the parties to said contract had signed the same, but before the acknowledgment of their signatures thereto pointed out to ono Scully who was the agent of and acting in the making of said contract lease for said Guffy & Co. the boundary of a portion of said thirty acres described in the contract sued on east of a certain fence extending north and south through the entire width of said thirty acre tract which said east portion contained a little more than ten acres of land, between ten and thirteen acres, and stated that the said east portion thus described was the portion of said thirty acres upon which said company might drill for gas. That said ten acres was to be east of said fence, and that the portion of
“That no other or different description or designation of boundaries than as hereinbefore found was ever given by said I. B. Anderson or his authorized agent to said Guffy & Co., or to either of these defendants, either as to the portion upon which gas wells might be drilled, or as to the excepted portion of said thirty acres described in the said contract.”
The court further found that neither Guffy & Co. nor these defendants nor either of them at any time ever asked I. B. Anderson or his authorized agent to mofe definitely
The description of the premises in the lease before us and in the lease in question in Indianapolis, etc., Co. v. Spaugh, 17 Ind. App. 683, is identical. It may be said here, as was said in the case last named, “If all the terms of the contract had been complied with, it could not have failed of execution by reason of the imperfect description,” for the reason that the lessor designated the boundaries within which the wells were to be drilled and pointed out the location of the first well to be drilled. Under the authority of that case, the lease was properly admitted.
The fourth reason for a new trial was that the court erred in permitting plaintiff to introduce in evidence over defendant’s objection the assignment of the contract sued on from Anderson to plaintiff. The objection is made that the lease purports to pass an interest in real estate, was for a period of more than three years, “could only be assigned by deed, subscribed, sealed and acknowledged”; also for the reason
The interest conveyed by this assignment was a mere chose in action; it had ceased to operate as an interest in real estate. As to the sufficiency of the description, what we have said as to the description of the real estate contained in the lease in passing upon the third reason for a new trial applies to the fourth reason. The second reason for a new trial was that the decision of the court is not sustained by sufficient evidence. An examination of the record discloses that the decision of the court was sustained by the evidence, and that a correct result was reached. We find no error for which the judgment should be reversed.
Judgment affirmed.
Henley, J., and Robinson, J., dissent.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.