Endicott v. De Barbieri

• Decision Date: 03 March 1962
• Docket Number: No. 42460,42460
• Citation: 369 P.2d 241,189 Kan. 301
• Parties: Jeannette H. ENDICOTT et al., Appellees, v. Louis V. DE BARBIERI et al., Appellants.
• Court: Kansas Supreme Court

Page 241

369 P.2d 241

189 Kan. 301

Jeannette H. ENDICOTT et al., Appellees, v. Louis V. DE BARBIERI et al., Appellants.

No. 42460.

Supreme Court of Kansas.

March 3, 1962.

Rehearing Denied April 11, 1962.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. Where an oil and gas lease contains certain clear and concise covenants as to lessee's duty to drill, they will be enforced without regard to standards of prudent leasehold operation under implied covenants.

2. The parties have the right to make their own lawful contract, and to have such contract enforced as written.

James W. Sargent, Wichita, argued the cause, and Emmet A. Blaes, Roetzel Jochems, Robert G. Braden, J. Francis Hesse, Stanley E. Wisdom, Cecil E. Merkel, Harry L. Hobson, Bruce W. Zuercher, Terrance J. Muth, and Lawrence D. Klenda J. Richards Hunter, Hutchinson, argued the cause, and D. C. Martindell, W. D. P. Carey, Harry H. Dunn, Edwin B. Brabets, Robert C. Martindell, William B. Swearer, Elwin F. Cabbage and John W. Feist, Hutchinson, were with him on the briefs, for appellees.

Wichita, and Paul R. Wunsch and Charles H. Stewart, Kingman, were him on the briefs, for appellants.

JACKSON, Justice.

The plaintiffs-appellees filed the suit in the court below for the purpose of obtaining a decree holding a certain oil and gas lease upon a quarter section of land in Kingman county null and void and to have expired under the special terms of the lease. After pleadings had been filed, the parties entered into a written stipulation of facts upon which the court heard the case and decided in favor of the plaintiffs allowing them the relief prayed for in the petition.

We shall set forth in stipulation of facts upon which the case was tried.

STIPULATION OF FACTS

'In lieu of the submission of evidence the parties hereto agreed that the action should be determined upon pleadings filed herein and the following stipulation:

"This stipulation, entered into on behalf of Jeannette H. Endicott, Gilbert D. Endicott and Sarah Diane Endicott, plaintiffs, by Wm. F. Pielsticker, their attorney, and on behalf of Louis V. DeBarbieri, George E. Allen, Byron A. Cain, William J. Froelich, Walter P. Mahoney, Lee Poulsen, William J. Froelich, Jr., and the unknown spouses and assigns of said persons, and the unknown heirs, executors, administrators, devisees, legatees, trustees and creditors or any of such persons as may be deceased, defendants, by Robert G. Braden, their attorney, as follows:

"'1. Plaintiff Jeannette H. Endicott is the owner of a life estate, and plaintiffs Gilbert D. Endicott and Sarah Diane Endicott are the owners of the remainder interest in certain land described as (omitting description) except the Northwest 10 acres thereof, and attached as Exhibit 'A' to plaintiffs' petition now on file herein is a photostat copy of the original oil and gas lease covering such land, dated April 1, 1958, executed by Clara B. Hanscome, a widow, as lessor, to Louis V. DeBarbieri as lessee, and the plaintiffs acquired their title to the land as devisees under the last will and testament of Clara B. Hanscome, who died on November 24, 1958.

"'2. The oil and gas lease contained provisions usual and customary in like leases, and further contained, in addition to other provisions, the following typewritten provisions, to-wit:

""It is also agreed that if no well be commenced on the above described lease on or before forty-five (45) days from the final determination of the case of Clara B. Hanscome, Appellee, vs. W. J. Coppinger et al, Appellants, No. 41,065 in the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas, this lease shall become null and void, otherwise in full force and effect.

""It is further agreed that in the event the first test well on the above described lands shall be completed as a commercial producer of oil, and gas, or either of them, then additional wells shall be drilled each six months in accordance with the spacing regulations promulgated by the Conservation Division of the Corporation Commission of the State of Kansas until the lease is fully developed, and unless Lessee commences or causes to be commenced the drilling of additional wells for oil and gas purposes on said premises within six months from and after the completion of the first test well and continues to drill wells in accordance herewith this lease shall cease and end insofar as all of the acreage covered by this lease, with the exception as to a ten acre tract in a square form around each of such producing wells and lessee agrees to forthwith release and surrender all of said leased premises, with the exception of said ten acre tract surrounding each well if the provisions of this paragraph be violated.'

"'3. The defendants are successors in part to the interest originally acquired by Louis V. DeBarbieri, the original lessee named in the lease. Pursuant to the privileges granted in said lease, the defendants commenced a test well for oil and gas on the land described in the lease on December 16, 1958 in full compliance with the requirements to commence a well as provided in the first typewritten special provision set forth in the first subparagraph of paragraph 2 above,...