Jones v. Colle
| Decision Date | 25 March 1987 |
| Docket Number | No. C-5385,C-5385 |
| Parties | B.H. JONES, Petitioner, v. Jack COLLE, Respondent. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Janet A. Nussbaum and Ronald G. Byrnes (Byrnes & Martin), Houston, for petitioner.
H.F. Halcom, Columbus, for respondent.
This is an appeal of a summary judgment in a suit to construe an oil and gas lease. Each party filed a motion for summary judgment. The court of appeals affirmed the summary judgment in favor of Jack Colle. 709 S.W.2d 8. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment for B.H. Jones.
Winifred Curry owned a portion of the minerals under two adjoining tracts of land. One tract contained 68.72 acres and Curry owned 28.84 mineral acres under that tract. The adjoining tract contained 49.34 acres and Curry owned 20.7 mineral acres under that tract. Curry thus owned a total of 49.54 mineral acres under the two tracts.
By deed dated January 3, 1949, Curry deeded to William K. Lehrer the surface only of the 68.72 acre tract. On November 3, 1978, Colle obtained from the District Court of Colorado County, Texas, an Order granting a Receivership Lease to Curry's mineral interest described as follows:
An undivided 49.54 mineral acres out of 68.72 mineral acres in the I. & G.N.R.R. Company Survey No. 7, Abstract 301, in Colorado County, Texas, as retained in a Deed from Winifred E. Curry, et al to Wm. K. Lehrer, dated January 3, 1949 and recorded in Volume 141, Page 511, Colorado County Deed Records to which references here are made for all purposes.
The lease also contained what is commonly known as a Mother Hubbard clause which recited as follows:
This lease also covers and includes, in addition to that above described, all land, if any, contiguous or adjacent to or adjoining the land above described and (a) owned or claimed by lessor by limitation, prescription, possession, reversion or unrecorded instrument or (b) as to which lessor has a preference right of acquisition.
The record reveals that Colle was aware of the existence of both the 68.72 acre tract and the 49.34 acre adjoining tract. The Receivership Lease was prepared by Colle and contained no reference to the 49.34 acre adjoining tract.
On February 11, 1982, Curry executed a mineral and royalty deed to Jones of her interest in both the 68.72 acre and the 49.34 acre tracts. Jones then intervened in the receivership action brought by Colle in Colorado County.
Colle contends that the Mother Hubbard clause of the Receivership Lease set out above transferred to him the mineral interest owned by Curry in both tracts. Jones points out that the additional acreage not described in the Receivership Lease equals 73% of the acreage actually described in the lease and thus does...
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