Lenox Coal Co. v. Duncan-Spangler Coal Co.

• Decision Date: 05 January 1920
• Citation: 109 A. 282
• Parties: LENOX COAL CO. v. DUNCAN-SPANGLER COAL CO.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

109 A. 282

LENOX COAL CO.
v.
DUNCAN-SPANGLER COAL CO.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Jan. 5, 1920.

Appeal from Court of Common Pleas, Cambria County.

Bill by the Lenox Coal Company against the Duncan-Spangler Coal Company. From a decree awarding to plaintiff an injunction defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Argued before BROWN, C. J., and STEWART, FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, and KEPHART, JJ.

F. J. Hartmann, of Ebensburg, for appellant.

Philip N. Shettig and M. D. Kittell, both of Ebensburg, for appellee.

WALLING, J. This bill in equity was filed to restrain the removal of pillars in coal mining, to the damage of the overlying estate. In 1901 the Blubaker Coal Company was the owner in fee of all the coal in a certain tract of land in Carroll township, Cambria county, consisting of a D seam and an E seam; the latter being about 40 feet above the former. That year the company made a lease of the D seam or vein to defendant's predecessor, containing the words, "grant, demise, and let unto the said parties of the second

109 A. 283

part the rights and privileges to mine and take away the coal known and designated as the D vein" (describing the premises), as well as the words, "to have and to hold the rights, titles, and privileges upon the demised premises to the parties of the second part for and during the term of 25 years, or until the marketable and workable coal has been taken out of the land hereby leased that contains the D vein of coal," and, further, "The vein of coal embraced within this lease shall be worked by the parties of the second part in the most economical method, under the usual conditions of mining bituminous coal in the region in which the land is situated, in accordance with the laws of the state of Pennsylvania." The lease contains no provision for letting down the superincumbent estate, nor any waiver of damages for so doing. However, after the first mining in D seam, defendant proceeded to remove pillars, thereby causing serious injury to mining operations in the E seam. In 1912, while this work of second mining was in progress, plaintiff's predecessor, John C. Cosgrove, with knowledge thereof, bought the E seam from the Blubaker Coal Company, and the conveyance to him contains a recital that pillars are being drawn in the D seam, which is likely to interfere with his operations and then states that—

"It is fully understood and agreed that in case the mining operations on the D seam of coal render the mining by the party of the second...