Beatty Oil & Gas Co. v. Blanton
| Decision Date | 14 August 1917 |
| Citation | 245 F. 979 |
| Parties | BEATTY OIL & GAS CO. v. BLANTON et al. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Kentucky |
B. R Jouett, of Winchester, Ky., for plaintiff.
E. C O'Rear, of Frankfort, Ky., for defendants.
This cause is before me on motion of plaintiff for a preliminary injunction.
The defendants Alex Blanton, S. J. Blanton, and Harry Daniel have alone appeared and objected to the motion. They object to the motion on two grounds. One is that plaintiff's lease was forfeited by failure to pay the quarterly rental, due November 4, 1916, and hence it has no rights thereunder which it is entitled to have protected. The lease in question granted to the lessee the right for 10 years to explore for oil and contained a covenant on his part to complete a well within one year from its date, or pay to the lessor at the rate of 10 cents per acre for each additional year that the completion was delayed, payable quarterly in advance. Defendants contend that a failure to pay any quarterly installment of the rent as covenanted, without more terminated the lease by forfeiture, notwithstanding there was no express clause of forfeiture. Plaintiff does not oppose this contention, and I assume it to be sound without investigation. It meets defendants here with the claim that the quarterly rental was paid on November 4, 1916, and by reason thereof the lease was not thus forfeited. The lease as to the payment of the rental, provided that it should be 'by check payable to the order of the parties of the first part, mailed to Alex Blanton to Alcorn, Ky., or deposited to Alex Blanton's credit in W. B. Williams & Sons' Bank. ' Thereby the bank was constituted the lessors' agent to receive payment of the rent and it would seem that it was sufficient to make payment to it by check as well as to the lessors directly.
Under the evidence I am constrained to hold that the lease was not forfeited by the failure to pay this rental. The defendants have themselves established that the rental was paid not later than November 10, 1916. On that date the bank notified the lessors by postal card that it had been paid, and defendants have produced the card giving the notice. I think the evidence warrants the conclusion that the check for the rental was deposited on the 4th. But if it is open to claim that it was not, and that it was deposited on a later date, before or on the 10th, this was sufficient to save the forfeiture. The bank was the lessors' agent. It accepted the check as payment. ...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
State v. Snyder
...Co., 103 Ar. 175; Kline v. Oil Co. (Cal.) 140 P. 1; Palmer Co. v. Woodard (Ga.) 75 S.E. 480; Chappel v. Foster, 123 P. 870; Beatty Co. v. Blanton (Ky.) 245 F. 979; Coal Co. v. Peers, 150 Ill. 344; Haywood Fulmer (Ind.) 18 L. R. A. 491; Lacey v. Newcomb, 63 N.W. 704; Harlow v. Iron Co., 36 M......
-
E. Oil Co. v. Smith
...relies upon the following cases: Friend v. Mallory (W. Va.) 43 S.E. 114; Lovett v. Eastern Oil Co. (W. Va.) 70 S.E. 707; Beatty Oil & Gas Co. v. Blanton, 245 F. 979; Texas Company v. Wimberly (Tex.) 213 S.W. 286. ¶38 While in each case above cited the court in passing upon the case referred......
-
Armstrong v. McGough
...case on Monday, the failure of the bank to credit it to the lessor on that day is not chargeable to the lessee. 70 S.E. 707; 220 S.W. 163; 245 F. 979; 213 S.W. E. W. McGough and Marsh & Marlin, for appellees. 1. The contractor provided for its own termination in express terms, if no well wa......
-
Joseph Miele Const. Co. v. City of Niagara Falls
...of the parties, the court will look only to the citizenship of the parties of record. Say the court in Beatty Oil & Gas Co. v. Blanton et al. (D.C.) 245 F. 979, 981: "The other ground is that this court has no jurisdiction because the Cumberland Producing & Refining Co., the owner of one-ha......