Dunham v. Kirkpatrick
| Citation | 101 Pa. 36 |
| Parties | Dunham and Shortt v. Kirkpatrick. |
| Decision Date | 02 October 1882 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Pennsylvania |
May 23 1882
A reservation by the grantors in a deed of " all minerals" does not include petroleum oil. The grantors may not, therefore, by virtue of such reservation, enter and take petroleum oil. If they do they are liable in trespass.
Before SHARSWOOD, C. J., MERCUR, GORDON, PAXSON, TRUNKEY, STERRETT and GREEN, JJ.
ERROR to the Court of Common Pleas of Warren county: Of January Term 1882, No. 462.
Trespass quare clausum fregit, by James Kirkpatrick against C. Dunham and Alfred Shortt, for entering and boring for petroleum oil and for cutting timber upon the plaintiff's premises. Plea, not guilty.
The following case stated was submitted for the opinion of the court:
The plaintiff is the owner of one hundred and ten acres of land more or less, being the south part of tract No. 109 in Meade township, Warren county, Pa., which he purchased from E. G Wood and others, by article of agreement, dated Dec. 5th 1870, and in pursuance of which he immediately took possession, and has remained in possession ever since. On Nov. 8th 1881, A. B. Butterfield and E. L. Butterfield, in whom the legal title of the original vendors had become vested, conveyed the same land to the plaintiff in pursuance of the agreement, the purchase money having been paid in full.
In the article of agreement, and also in the deed, was inserted the following clause: " Excepting and reserving all the timber suitable for sawing; also, all minerals; also, the right of way to take off such timber and minerals."
On or about Feb. 1st 1881, the defendants entered upon said land erected a derrick and engine house, and drilled an oil well thereon, from which they have continually taken oil up to this date, to wit, March 28th 1882.
On or about the same time the defendants, by their agents, also entered upon said land and cut down certain trees, and converted them into firewood and other forms, and used them in their business, said trees not being suitable for sawing timber.
The defendants claim by virtue of a lease for oil purposes from the said E. L. Butterfield and A. B. Butterfield, dated Dec. 15th 1880. About the time of the first entry by defendants, to wit, March 7th 1881, a written notice was served upon C. Dunham, one of the defendants, by plaintiff. The said article of agreement, dated Dec. 5th 1870 (marked " Exhibit A" ), the deed referred to (and marked " Exhibit B" ), the notice above mentioned (marked " Exhibit C" ), are hereto attached, and admitted to be duly executed and served as above. The lease to defendants (marked " Exhibit D" ), is also attached and admitted to be duly executed.
The value of the firewood and timber, not sawing timber, taken by defendants is agreed to be fifteen dollars. The value of the oil taken is $757.50, including interest to March 27th 1882. This includes all oil taken up to and including March 25th 1882.
The above facts are submitted for the opinion of the court with the same effect as if found by special verdict. If the court shall be of opinion that by the article of agreement and deed (Exhibits " A" and " B" ), the petroleum oil, with the right to take it, was excepted or reserved, then judgment to be entered for the plaintiff for $15. If the court shall be of opinion that the oil was not reserved or excepted by said agreement and deed, then judgment to be entered for the plaintiff for $772.76, interest to be added in either case from March 25th 1882.
EXHIBIT A.
MEAD, December 5, 1870.--Agreement made and entered into the fifth day of December, A. D. 1870, between E. G. Wood & Co., of Mead Township, Warren County and State of Penna., of the one part, and James Kirkpatrick of the same place of the other part, witnesseth, that the said E. G. Wood & Co., in consideration of the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars now paid and one hundred and eighty dollars to be paid in two equal installments, with interest on the same, doth grant, bargain and sell to the said James Kirkpatrick, his heirs and assigns, all that piece of land situated in Mead Township, Warren County and State of Penna., bounded as follows: It being the south portion of lot No. 110, beginning at the south-east corner of the whole tract, thence north seventy-three and four-tenths rods to a stake, thence west two hundred and forty rods to a beech tree, thence south seventy-three and four-tenths rods to the south-west corner of the whole tract, thence east along the south line of said tract two hundred and forty rods to the place of beginning, containing one hundred and ten acres of land, excepting and reserving all the timber suitable for sawing; also all minerals; also the right of way to take off such timber and minerals.
And the said parties hereby bind themselves, their heirs, executors and administrators, for the performance of all and every of the above agreement, as witness their hands and seals the day and year first above written.
E. G. WOOD & CO., [L. S.]
JAMES KIRKPATRICK, [L. S.]
Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of
J. M. WOOD.
Received December 5, 1870, of James Kirkpatrick one hundred and fifty dollars, the first payment above mentioned.
Received April 9,1874, axe handles to the value of (62 2/3 doz.) one hundred dollars on the within.
$169 12/100. Received Warren, Pa., Nov. 23, 1881, of James Kirkpatrick, by hand of C. H. Noyes, one hundred sixty-nine and 12/100 dollars in full for the balance of purchase-money due on the within contract.
Their Attorneys.
The following is an extract from the deed containing the reservation and exception, dated Nov. 8th 1881:
The court, after argument, entered judgment for the plaintiff for $773.66, filing the following opinion:
Whether the plaintiff is entitled to recover for the oil taken, depends on the true construction of the exception and reservation in the article of agreement from E. G. Wood and others, and the deed made by the Butterfields in pursuance of such agreement.
The words in the article of agreement and also in the deed are, " excepting and reserving all the timber suitable for sawing; also all minerals; also the right of way to take off such timber and minerals." Is or is not petroleum included in the exception " all minerals?" The case stated gives no extraneous, illustrative facts. We are left to determine the intention and meaning of the parties solely from the terms of the writings. If the terms used are free from ambiguity there is nothing for construction to do. The expressed stipulations of the parties must not be defeated, even to reach their supposed intention. " A contract which the parties intended to make, but did not make, cannot be set up in the place of one they did make, but did not intend to make." But a word may be used in its most comprehensive sense, or in a restricted one--in a popular and common sense, or in a scientific, technical or peculiar one. That the word " minerals" in its most comprehensive signification includes petroleum, is probably an accurate statement. It is said to be a mineral in the case of Funk v. Haldeman, 3 P. F. Smith 229; Appeal of Stoughton et al., 7 Norris 198; but the question remains, did the parties to the agreement and deed, recited in the case stated, use the word in the enlarged or in a restricted sense?
That they did not use it in its most comprehensive sense appears quite certain, for if they did we have the somewhat singular business transaction of an agreement to convey, and a deed of conveyance of land with an exception and reservation to the grantor of at least all the substances which form any part of the solid body of the land, both external and internal, and which are destitute of animal or vegetable life. It does not seem reasonable that so large a reservation was intended, and hence we are led to the conclusion that the words " all minerals" were used in a restricted sense. " The best construction," says C. J. GIBSON, in the Schuylkill Nav. Co. v. Moore, 2 Wharton 491, " is that which is made by viewing the subject of the contract as the Mass. of mankind would view it, for it may be safely assumed that such was the aspect in which the parties themselves viewed it."
In Robertson v. French, 4 East 135, it is said that written instruments " must be construed according to the sense and meaning as collected in the first place from the terms used, which terms are themselves to be understood in their plain, ordinary and popular sense, unless by the known usage of trade or the like they have obtained or acquired a meaning distinct from the popular meaning of the same words."
Does the plain, ordinary and popular sense, that sense in which the Mass. of mankind understand the term " minerals," include petroleum? We think not. In Gibson v. Tyson, 5 Watts 34, the reservation was " all mineral." One question was whether a hard substance called chrome, of a very considerable commercial value and related to iron in some of its properties and properly classified as a mineral, was included in the ordinary and common acceptation of the word. In delivering the opinion Judge KENNEDY says: ...
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