Collins v. Stalnaker
| Citation | 48 S.E.2d 430,131 W.Va. 543 |
| Decision Date | 15 June 1948 |
| Docket Number | 10005. |
| Parties | COLLINS et al. v. STALNAKER et al. |
| Court | Supreme Court of West Virginia |
Syllabus by the Court.
1. A provision in a deed conveying a parcel of land, on which there was one producing gas well that 'in the event there is more than one producing well drilled on said land hereby conveyed, the proceeds of the other wells so drilled shall be equally divided' among the grantee in said deed and two others who are not made formal parties to the deed, means the proceeds of a well or wells other than the one producing well as distinguished from the oil and gas in place.
2. Persons not named in the premises or granting clause of a deed of conveyance are strangers thereto.
3. 'While a clause in a deed of conveyance which is phrased as a reservation may be treated as an exception where it is necessary to do so in order to carry out the plain purpose of the parties to the instrument, even when so construed, it cannot operate actually to vest rights to the property excepted in persons who are strangers to the instrument.' Beckley National Exchange Bank v. Lilly et al., 116 W.Va. 608, Pt. 3 Syl., 182 S.E. 767, 102 A.L.R. 462.
4. A provision in a deed conveying a parcel of land that 'in the event there is more than one producing well drilled on said land hereby conveyed, the proceeds of the other wells so drilled shall be equally divided' among the grantee in said deed and two others who are not made formal parties to the deed, should not be construed as a reservation or exception of the oil and gas in place in favor of the grantor.
W. J Brennan, of Sistersville, and Wm.Bruce Hoff, of Parkersburg for appellant.
S. P Bell, of Spencer, for appellees.
RILEY President.
A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins brought this suit in equity in the Circuit Court of Gilmer County against Clara Stalnaker and Hope Natural Gas Company, a corporation, for the purpose of partitioning the oil and gas within and underlying a tract of two hundred thirty-five acres of land in Gilmer County, formerly owned by Lue V. Collins, the mother of the three individual litigants. Clara Stalnaker prosecutes this appeal from a decree of the circuit court, based upon the finding of that court that the individual parties were the owners in place of the oil and gas within and underlying said tract of land, directing the partition of the oil and gas and appointing commissioners to make such partition.
On March 11, 1941, Lue V. Collins, the owner in fee simple of the tract of two hundred thirty-five acres, the oil and gas within and underlying which is involved in this suit, executed a will which, among other things, contains the following provisions pertinent in this suit:
'And in the event there is one or more wells drilled on said farm, then the proceeds of same shall be divided equally between my sons A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins, and my daughter Clara Stalnaker.'
On the following day and under the name of L. V. Collins, she executed a deed conveying the two hundred thirty-five acres to her daughter, the defendant, Clara Stalnaker, the pertinent provisions of which read:
At the time the will and deed were executed, the acreage was under lease for oil and gas purposes to defendant, Hope Natural Gas Company, which then had one producing well thereon. Lue V. Collins died on August 16, 1942, and her will was duly probated in Gilmer County. Thereafter the only producing well was abandoned and the lease terminated by the gas company under the provisions thereof. On February 23, 1944, Clara Stalnaker, executed a lease, purporting to embrace the whole of the oil and gas within and underlying the two hundred thirty-five acres to the gas company, but no additional wells have been drilled under said lease.
This cause is here on the pleadings and the trial court's rulings thereon. Clara Stalnaker's demurrer to the bill of complaint was overruled, and thereupon she answered, admitting the allegations of the bill of complaint which set forth the aboverecited facts, but denying that her brothers were owners in common with her of the oil and gas in question. There was a general reply to the answer. The trial court, by the decree complained of, held that A. B. Collins, Harlan Collins and Clara Stalnaker were the owners in common in fee of the oil and gas in place, each being the owner of an undivided one-third interest therein, decreed partition thereof in kind, appointed commissioners for such partition, and further decreed that the lease between Clara Stalnaker and Hope Natural Gas Company, was binding only as to said lessor's undivided one-third interest.
The deed and the will, though couched in different terms, have the same legal purport. In the deed the grantor reserved 'the proceeds from one Gas well now on said farm as long as she lives and at the death of the first party well is to go to' the grantee, Clara Stalnaker. The will provided that Clara Stalnaker was to have all the proceeds from the then producing well, but as the will did not take effect until Lue V. Collins' death, the deed and will give rise to no difference in principle, for under each Clara Stalnaker's beneficial interest in the one gas well, that is the proceeds thereof, did not vest until decedent's death. The will provides that 'in the event there is one or more wells drilled on said farm, then the proceeds of same shall be divided equally between my sons A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins, and my daughter Clara Stalnaker.' The deed provides that 'And in the event there is more than one producing well drilled on said land hereby conveyed, the proceeds of the other wells so drilled shall be equally divided between A. B. Collins, Harlen Collins and Clara Stalnaker.' Under these latter provisions of the will and deed the grantor-testator by the use in both instruments of the words 'in the event', clearly meant a well or wells other than the one already drilled and later abandoned.
On this appeal A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins, hereinafter spoken of as 'appellees', contend that the effect of the deed to Clara Stalnaker was to except the oil and gas within and underlying the tract of land, except the gas produced from the well then drilled on the premises, and that the oil and gas, subject to such exceptions, were vested in A. B. Collins, Harlan Collins and Clara Stalnaker by the will of Lue V. Collins. Pursuing this position further, it is contended that the appellees, A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins, and the appellant, Clara Stalnaker, were the owners in common of the oil and gas in place within and underlying the two hundred thirty-five tract, and under Chapter 146, Acts of the Legislature 1939, which authorizes the partition of oil and gas, are entitled to partition thereof, whether the 'proceeds of' other wells in addition to the then one producing well are real or personal property. Partition may be had in a court of equity of both real and personal property. In Warren v. Boggs, 83 W.Va. 89, pt. 5 syl., 97 S.E. 589, involving a suit in equity, this Court held: 'Royalty in oil brought to the surface is 'personal property', and as such is susceptible of partition among its co-owners.'
We do not agree with counsel for the appellees in the position that the deed for the two hundred and thirty-five acres of land to Clara Stalnaker excepted the oil and gas in place, except the gas produced from the then producing well on the premises, and that the same became vested in the appellees, A. B. Collins and Harlan Collins, and the appellant, Clara Stalnaker, by the will of Lue V. Collins. The deed does not contain terminology which would conventionally give rise to an exception or reservation to the grantor, Lue V. Collins, of all the oil and gas in place with the exception of the gas from the one producing well. By the deed the grantor, Lue V.
Collins, in consideration of one dollar in hand paid and the stipulations set forth therein, granted with covenants of general warranty the two hundred thirty-five acres of land described as being situated on Owens Run, Center District, Gilmer County. 'The stipulations' were evidently intended by the parties to be the covenants on the part of Clara Stalnaker 'to maintain, keep and support' grantor during her natural life. The deed contains all of the necessary formal parts required to convey the entire title to the land, subject to the covenant as to support and the exception to the grantor of the proceeds of the then producing gas well, and subject to whatever effect the provision as to the division of the proceeds of wells other than the then producing well.
In Paxton v. Benedum-Trees Oil Co., 80 W.Va. 187, 94 S.E. 472; Snodgrass v. Koen, 82 W.Va. 337, 96 S.E 606; Manufacturers' Light & Heat Co. v. Knapp, 102 W.Va. 308, 135 S.E. 1, and similar cases, this Court has enunciated the principle that the beneficial use of land is equivalent to ownership in place and specifically in the case of Paxton v. Benedum-Trees Oil Co., supra, pt. 1 syl.: 'A grant of the royalties, rents, and income arising from the production of the oil from land is a grant of the oil in such land.' In that case an owner in fee of a tract of land...
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