Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Suits

Citation40 F.2d 161
Decision Date14 May 1930
Docket NumberNo. 183-190.,183-190.
PartiesMAGNOLIA PETROLEUM CO. v. SUITS et al. FYKE et al. v. MAGNOLIA PETROLEUM CO. et al.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

B. B. Blakeney, of Oklahoma City, Okl. (W. H. Francis, of Dallas, Tex., and Hubert Ambrister, of Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for complainant.

J. H. Jarman and J. B. Dudley, both of Oklahoma City, Okl. (J. B. Allen, J. H. Everest, Fred E. Suits, and Wilbur J. Holleman, all of Oklahoma City, Okl., on the brief), for respondents.

Before LEWIS, COTTERAL, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges.

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

This suit was brought by Magnolia Petroleum Company, a Texas corporation, to enjoin Suits and Holleman, lessees of the Union Missionary Baptist Church, from drilling an oil and gas well on a plot of ground, 180 feet by 302½ feet, in the northwest corner of a 40-acre tract in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, and from producing and taking oil and gas through the well. The bill was dismissed on final hearing and plaintiff has appealed. There is no controversy about the facts. Laura L. Fyke and her husband owned the 40 acres and adjoining lands. In June, 1922, they gave an oil and gas lease on these lands, including the forty, to the Magnolia Company. That company has producing wells on the 40 acres. One of them is 330 feet from the plot of ground above described. In February, 1912, the Fykes conveyed said plot by warranty deed to the church. The deed contains this paragraph:

"This deed is made expressly upon the condition that the said premises herein granted are to be used exclusively for a site for the erection and maintenance of a church building for the said Union Missionary Baptist Church, and whenever the same shall hereafter cease to be used for such purpose, this deed shall become void and the title to the said premises shall revert to the grantors herein, their heirs and assigns."

The church erected a building on the site and it has ever since used it for church purposes.

We are not concerned with the latter part of the paragraph, that part after the word "Church," which deals with forfeiture. It is not claimed that the church has forfeited its title. That question is not in this case. This is a suit in equity by the grantors' lessee to protect its claimed rights as lessee by enforcing the restricted use of the church site, as provided in the deed, that is, that part of the paragraph down to and including the word "Church."

It is the contention of the Church and its lessees that the former took the fee, determinable though it be on condition subsequent, which is inconsistent with restricted use, that the fee vests unlimited dominion. The trial court so ruled and held that plaintiff was not entitled to equitable relief. We think it erred. From an early date equity has enforced restrictions on use in favor of the grantor and his assigns, if damaged by additional use, against the grantee and his assigns with notice, no matter what the title taken by the grantee may be. This is one of the many instances of relief in equity from the harsh rules of the common law, well expressed by the Supreme Court of North Carolina in Guilford County v. Porter, 167 N. C. 366, 83 S. E. 564, 565:

"It is contended by the plaintiff that the provision of restricted use in said deeds is void: First, because the condition is repugnant to the estate in fee simple already granted, and that such condition should be rejected and treated as surplusage. This position is untenable. If such a construction of a deed ever obtained in this state, it does not now. The narrow rules of the common law in construing deeds and other instruments, as expounded in Hafner v. Irwin, 20 N. C. 570, 34 Am. Dec. 390, taken from Coke & Blackstone, have given way to a more enlightened and broader doctrine. The whole of a deed is now so construed as to effectuate the plainly expressed intention of the grantor, and to carry out the manifest purposes of the parties. The technicalities of the common law will not be permitted to override the intention so expressed."

The subject is treated at length by Mr. Pomeroy in his treatise on Equity Jurisprudence (4th Ed.) §§ 689, 1295, and 1342. English and American cases are there cited sustaining the equitable right to enforce restrictions on use by a grantee in favor of one who may be injured by their violation. The Sixth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Lurton, in American Strawboard Co. v. Haldeman Paper Co. (C. C. A.) 83 F. 619, 625, considered the subject. There the owner of a manufacturing plant leased it to one Friend, with an option to purchase. Should the option be exercised the lessor agreed to convey the property by good and sufficient warranty deed. The lease contained a restriction on use of the premises, which was to continue if the option to purchase should be exercised, for twenty years thereafter. Friend assigned the lease and option and his assignee demanded a warranty deed without the insertion therein of a clause expressive of the restricted use, which on being refused, was made the ground of breach of contract in an action at law for damages by the assignee. The court held that the vendor, for its protection, had a right to have the deed express the restricted use, and hence there was no breach. The authorities on the point now under consideration were reviewed and Judge Lurton, speaking for the court, said:

"The general principle is that if the covenant relate to the mode of enjoying the leased lands, whether for the benefit of the reversion, or of other lands of the lessor, or of a business conducted elsewhere by him, it is a covenant which, in the language of the old cases, `touches' or `concerns'...

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5 cases
  • Childress v. Cook, 16360.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)
    • June 18, 1957
    ...v. Dockery, 8 Cir., 180 F.2d 874; Glens Falls Indemnity Co. v. United States, 9 Cir., 229 F.2d 370. But see contra, Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Suits, 10 Cir., 40 F.2d 161; Pettyjohn v. Pettyjohn, 8 Cir., 192 F.2d 322. A number of district courts have perhaps broadened the concept of "ancilla......
  • Maryland Casualty Co. v. Boyle Const. Co.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)
    • November 10, 1941
    ...sole controversy is with citizens of his own state. DeGraffenreid v. Yount-Lee Oil Company, 5 Cir., 30 F.2d 574; Magnolia Petroleum Company v. Suits, 10 Cir., 40 F.2d 161. The court below properly dismissed appellant's cross-claim for want of As we pointed out in the Hugee case, if there we......
  • Collier v. Harvey
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (10th Circuit)
    • December 28, 1949
    ...jurisdiction of the court, there was no dependent jurisdiction to entertain and enter judgment on the cross-claim. Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Suits, 10 Cir., 40 F.2d 161. The case of Till v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 10 Cir., 124 F.2d 405, does not sustain the contention that the co......
  • Farr v. Detroit Trust Co.
    • United States
    • United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)
    • January 14, 1941
    ...sole controversy is with citizens of his own state. De Graffenreid v. Yunt-Lee Oil Company, 5 Cir., 30 F.2d 574; Magnolia Petroleum Company v. Suits, 10 Cir., 40 F.2d 161. The court below properly dismissed appellant's cross-claim for want of Appellee did not waive jurisdiction by answering......
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