Cherokee Oil & Gas Co. v. Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Co.

• Citation: 242 P. 214,116 Okla. 121,45 A.L.R. 698,1926 OK 82
• Decision Date: 02 February 1926
• Docket Number: 13630.
• Parties: CHEROKEE OIL & GAS CO. v. LUCKY LEAF OIL & GAS CO.
• Court: Supreme Court of Oklahoma

242 P. 214

116 Okla. 121, 45 A.L.R. 698, 1926 OK 82

CHEROKEE OIL & GAS CO. v. LUCKY LEAF OIL & GAS CO.

No. 13630.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

February 2, 1926

Syllabus by the Court.

The intentions and purposes of parties as evidenced by a contract, in the absence of allegations that fraud, accident or mistake entered into its execution, are to be determined from the language of the agreement, the nature of the subject-matter contracted about, and the relation of the parties thereto.

The intention of the parties as evidenced by the contract is a question of law for the court, in the absence of allegations that the agreement as expressed was the result of accident mistake, or fraud.

The allegation that the written agreement does not express the contract of the parties, in an action for reformation, does not state a cause of action, unless the pleader alleges a state of fact which discloses that the execution of the contract as expressed by the writing was not the result of negligence upon his part.

Record examined; held to be sufficient to support judgment in favor of the Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company, intervener.

Commissioners' Opinion, Division No. 4.

Appeal from District Court, Kay County; J. W. Bird, Judge.

Action by the Cherokee Oil & Gas Company against the Blackwell Oil & Gas Company to recover payments for gas. The Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company intervened as claimant of the fund, and was substituted for the Blackwell Oil & Gas Company. Judgment for intervener, the Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company. Plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Bellatti & Brown, of Blackwell, for plaintiff in error.

J. E Curran, of Blackwell, for defendant in error.

STEPHENSON C.

The Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company was the owner of an oil and gas lease which granted to the holder thereof certain oil and gas rights in and to the lands described in the lease. The instrument was in the usual commercial form used for such grants and conveyances. The Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company sold and assigned the lease which is now owned by the plaintiff. The material part of the assignment which is in controversy is in the following language:

"Reserving however, to the said Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company a one-sixteenth royalty interest, which interest is to be delivered to said Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company free and clear of all expenses."

The assignee of the lease contends that it is entitled to the entire gas production under the assignment, and that the assignor is entitled, only, to one-sixteenth of the oil. The Blackwell Oil & Gas Company refused to make payment of one-sixteenth of the gas, either to the plaintiff, or to the Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company. The Cherokee Oil & Gas Company commenced its action against the Blackwell Oil & Gas Company for one-sixteenth of the gas. The Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company intervened in the cause and claimed that it was entitled to the payment. The Blackwell Oil & Gas Company paid the money in controversy into the court and was discharged. The trial of the cause resulted in a judgment for the Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company, and the plaintiff has appealed the cause to this court for review. The errors assigned for reversal are: (1) Error of the court in overruling its motion for continuance on account of the absence of material witnesses in another state; (2) error in the admission of certain incompetent testimony; (3) that the judgment of the court is contrary to the law and evidence.

The plaintiff attached a copy of the assignment in question to its petition, as the foundation for its right to recover the one-sixteenth gas production from the leased premises. It is set forth in the petition that the terms of the assignment granted all the gas rights in the premises to the plaintiff.

The Lucky Leaf Oil & Gas Company set forth in its plea of intervention that it was also entitled to the one-sixteenth interest by the terms of the written assignment; that it was understood...