Girard Trust Co. v. Delaware & Hudson Co.
Girard Trust Co. v. Delaware & Hudson Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This bill was filed for an accounting for coal mined and removed by defendant and not paid for. There is no substantial dispute about the facts and the case turns upon the interpretation of the contract between the parties. The agreement is in writing and was executed July 16,1878. The elause which forms the basis of this litigation provides as follows: “And further it is hereby agreed, that the said party of the second part may continue to mine the coal from the lands so held by the Northern Coal & Iron Company and the said Lazarus D. Shoemaker as tenants in common, paying to the said L. D. Shoemaker, his heirs or assigns, at the rate of twenty-five (25) cents per ton for his proportion of the coal so mined as heretofore and according to their established usage and practice and without any liability for any damage that may occur from mining and removing the coal, or any part thereof in or from said land so as aforesaid held in common or for the occupation and use of the surface thereof.” The primary purpose for executing the agreement of 1878 seems to have been to grant or lease all the merchantable coal underlying a certain five-acre tract of land belonging to L. D. Shoemaker, but which was independent of and had no connection with the interest held by him as tenant in common in the coal which forms the subject matter of the present controversy. In 1871 the Northern Coal &
It is argued that the phrase “in accordance with their usual conditions and practice” which appears in another clause of the lease relating to the coal held by Shoemaker as tenant in Common, was intended to include in the agreement of 1878 the “conditions and practice” which the lessee company adopted as to sizes of coal to be paid for under the lease of 1871. "The same argument is made as to the phrase “according to their established usage and practice” which appears in the clause herein-before set out. As to this contention the learned court
After a careful consideration of this entire record we have concluded that the learned court below properly decided the case under the facts as well as the law.. The learned chancellor gave the case intelligent and exhaustive consideration and reached a conclusion that accords with right and reason, and does no violence to es
Decree affirmed at cost of appellant.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Girard Trust Co. v. Delaware & Hudson Company
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Mines and mining — Coal leases — Construction — Royalties — Equity — Accounting. ■ 1. Even where a lessor of coal by receipting in full for a lesser amount of coal than he claimed he-was entitled to receive, waives the right of- himsélf and his heirs to- recover the correct amount, his conduct can not be considered such an interpretation of the. lease as to prevent his descendants who are his legal representatives from asserting a different interpretation of the lease. 2. In a suit in equity for an accounting for coal mined and removed by defendants from a certain tract of coal lands, where the issue was the right of the plaintiff to recover for coal so small as to pass through a five-eighth-inch mesh, and where it appeared that plaintiff’s ancestor had been the tenant in common of such lands with a coal company, that in 1871 the coal company granted to defendant the right to mine coal from the land so held by it as tenant in common with plaintiff’s ancestor, with the consent of the latter; that defendant accounted to him every three months for coal mined from the premises but paid only for coal which passed over a five-eighth-ineh mesh; that in quarterly statements of tonnage mined rendered to him, no mention was made of the size of the coal mined and removed, nor was there any suggestion that the smaller size was not included in the total amount accounted for; that in 1878 he executed a further agreement, the primary purpose of which was to grant to the defendant the right to mine coal underlying a five-acre tract belonging to him in fee, under the express provision that “any coal which will pass through a five-eighth-inch mesh is not to be paid for,” which contract contained a further provision granting to defendant the right to continue to mine the coal from the land so held by the coal company and himself as tenants in common, paying to him, his heirs and assigns at the rate of twenty-five cents per ton for his proportion of the coal so mined as heretofore, “and according to their established usage and practice......”; and that in another part of the said agreement the phrase “in accordance with their usual conditions and practice” appeared, relating to the coal held by him as tenant in common, it was held that neither the language of the grant nor the dealing of the parties indicated an intention to give the lessees the smaller sizes of coal passing through the five-eighth-inch screen for nothing and that the plaintiff was not estopped from claiming payment for the smaller sizes of coal. 3. In such case the evidence is not sufficient to charge plaintiff’s ancestor with notice that the lessee was appropriating the smaller sizes of coal without paying for the Same, and under these circumstances it could not be said that he was bound by the practice which the lessee company adopted but about which he was not informed, and the same is true as to any alleged waiver of his right to claim royalties in addition to what he had received.