Armitage v. Mt. Sterling Oil & Gas Co.

• Decision Date: 27 April 1904
• Citation: 80 S.W. 177
• Parties: ARMITAGE v. MT. STERLING OIL & GAS CO.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

80 S.W. 177

ARMITAGE v. MT. STERLING OIL & GAS CO.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

April 27, 1904

Appeal from Circuit Court, Menifee County.

"Not to be officially reported."

Action by H. B. Armitage against the Mt. Sterling Oil & Gas Company. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Osbon Candel & Day, for appellant.

Robert H. Winn, for appellee.

BURNAM C.J.

On the 26th of May, 1900, the appellee, the Mt. Sterling Oil & Gas Company, obtained from the appellant, H. B. Armitage, a written lease giving it the exclusive right to drill and operate for petroleum, oil, and gas, coal and minerals, upon a tract of 470 acres of land owned by him, situated in Menifee county, Ky. for a term of 10 years, and as much longer as oil, gas, coal, and minerals were found thereon. The consideration therefor recited in the lease is that the oil and gas company should give to the appellant one-tenth of the petroleum, oil, gas, and minerals obtained on the premises, and deliver the same in pipe lines to his credit. It was further agreed that if gas was found in sufficient quantities to market, and to be piped from the premises to such market, the lessor was to receive $100 per annum for each well, so long as the gas from this well was marketed. The lessee further agreed to sink a test well on the land within three years, and to commence operations in the county inside of six months. It was expressly stipulated that the lease was to become void if the well was not completed within three years, unless the lessees should pay rentals for the premises at the rate of 10 cents per acre during the time the drilling was delayed. On the 13th of February, 1903, the appellant instituted this suit for a cancellation of the lease on the ground that appellee had failed to commence operations in the county of Menifee within six months from the date of the lease, and had also failed to sink a test well on the leased land in accordance with the terms of the contract. The defendant filed a general demurrer to the petition, which was sustained by the trial court, and plaintiff's petition dismissed, and he has appealed.

Whilst under the terms of its contract, the oil company was to commence operations in the county of Menifee within six months, the only express provision for the forfeiture of the lease recited in the contract is the provision that it was to become void if the well was not completed within three years from...