Scilly v. Bramer
Scilly v. Bramer
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This is an appeal by defendant from an order of the court below in an action of ejectment wherein plaintiffs seek to recover possession of 112% acres of land (less five acres to be surveyed and set apart to defendant) in Warren County, Pennsylvania, leased in 1905 to defendant’s predecessors for the “sole and only purpose of . . . producing ... oil and gas.” The lease was for a period of twenty years. The present litigation is between assignees of the original parties. In 1926 the lease was extended for twenty years, subject to all the terms and conditions thereof; and on June 11, 1938, the lease was again renewed, subject to its terms and conditions, “for so long as oil Or gas or either -of them is produced -in paying -quantities.”
Defendant acquired an assignment of the lessee’s interest in 1926. At that time two wells had been drilled; one well was abandoned in 1932. The lessors accepted royalties from the single producing well on the tract until 1941, when the present plaintiffs purchased the fee or lessors’ interest, at which time plaintiffs called to the attention of defendant the forfeiture provisions of the lease. On October 11, 1948, plaintiffs made demand upon defendant to commence drilling the additional wells within thirty days, in compliance with the terms of the lease, or they would enforce forfeiture pf the lease and retake possession of the undeveloped acreage.. Defendant refused to begin to drill any fur
Testimony was taken in the court below on the rule and answer. The court held that plaintiffs were entitled to a judgment in ejectment for the 112% acre tract in question, except five acres surrounding the single well thereon. The court below by its order declared the oil and gas lease covering the 112% acres forfeited “pursuant to the terms of said agreement, except as to the producing well, together with five (5) acres surrounding said well, to be surveyed by the parties as contemplated and provided for in said original lease, and the said well and acreage shall be subject to the covenants and conditions of the original lease ‘so far as is applicable.’ ”
The facts in. this case establish plaintiffs’ claim to possession of the undeveloped acreage, under the .provisions of the lease, and they are entitled to a. judgment in ejectment: Forfeiture clauses in leases such as. oil and gas and mining leases will be enforced, where such forfeiture is. necessary to do justice, is not contrary to equity;, and protects the: owner of the land from , the laches.of the lessee. Brown v. Vandergrift, 80 Pa. 142,
Assuming that reasonable notice of forfeiture was necessary (Cf. Duffield v. Hue, supra, 129 Pa. 94, 102, 18 A. 566, and Warren Tank Car Co. v. Dodson, 330 Pa. 281, 199 A. 139), plaintiffs, upon acquiring title to the fee, called upon defendant to develop the premises and drill wells as required in the lease, and they gave defendant almost sixteen months’ notice of their intention to forfeit the lease, as to the undeveloped acreage, for noncompliance.
Defendant relies on Kern Sunset Oil Co. v. Good Roads Oil Co., 214 Cal. 435, 6 P. 2d 71, 80 A.L.R. 453, where the lease required lessee to drill two wells per year until sixteen wells were completed. Over a period of thirteen years only thirteen wells were drilled. The lessor thereafter attempted to forfeit the lease, but the court refused forfeiture on the ground that lessor waived his right to forfeit by the acceptance of royalties for five years after the date when the. sixteen wells should-have been drilled. In that case-the: result Of--the
It has always been held that a judgment in ejectment should show with reasonable certainty the land to be recovered so that execution or a writ of possession may be issued upon it. Smith v. Jenks, 10 S. & R. 153; Miles Land Co. v. Pennsylvania Coal Co., 277 Pa. 63, 68, 120 A. 767.
The order of the court below is affirmed; and the record is remitted to that court for the entry of a judgment in ejectment in favor of plaintiffs and against defendant for the leased premises, excluding the producing well together with five acres contiguous thereto to be surveyed and determined as provided by the order of the court.
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