Methodist Home v. Mays

• Decision Date: 11 November 1954
• Docket Number: No. 6744,6744
• Citation: 273 S.W.2d 444
• Parties: METHODIST HOME, Appellant, v. Tom J. MAYS, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 444

273 S.W.2d 444

METHODIST HOME, Appellant, v. Tom J. MAYS, Appellee.

No. 6744.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Texarkana.

Nov. 11, 1954.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 2, 1954.

Witt, Terrell, Jones & Riley, Waco, for appellant.

Carney, Carney & Mays, Atlanta, Robert S. Vance, Texarkana, for appellee.

FANNING, Justice.

This suit was brought by appellee, Tom J. Mays, as a trespass to try title suit and to remove cloud from 238 acres of land in Cass County, Texas (and pleading various limitation statutes), against Sulphur Oil Company, a defunct corporation, and the unknown stockholders of Sulphur Oil Company, and various other named defendants, including Methodist Home, a corporation. Trial was to the court without a jury and the court rendered judgment in favor of appellee. No findings of fact or conclusions of law were requested and none were filed. Appellant, Methodist Home, has appealed. None of the other defendants have appealed.

It was stipulated that F. M. Greene (the common source of title) received good title to the 238-acre tract in 1903. In 1907, F. M. Greene executed an instrument, titled 'oil and gas lease,' covering 1414 acres of land in Cass County, Texas, including the 238-acre tract, to Sulphur Oil Company, a corporation, reciting a cash consideration of $1414 (which was not paid in cash as recited, but in stock and other contractual considerations as hereinafter noted), which reads in part as follows:

'Oil & Gas Lease

'F. M. Green To Sulphur Oil Co.

'The State of Texas

'County of Cass

'Know All Men By These Presents:

'that I, F. M. Greene of the County of Cass in the State aforesaid, for and in consideration of the sum of Fourteen Hundred and fourteen dollars paid by Sulphur Oil Co., a private corporation under and by virtue of the laws of Texas, with its office at Atlanta, Cass County, Texas, have granted, sold and conveyed and by these presents do grant, sell and convey unto the said Sulphur Oil Co. of the County of Cass, State of Texas, all petroleum, gas and other minerals (except iron ore) in and under the following described tract of land in Cass County, Texas, and fully described as follows'

(Here follows description of 1,414 acres of land including the 238-acre tract in controversy).

'Said Sulphur Oil Co. to have the right at any time to enter upon said premises, for the purpose of drilling or operating for oil, gas or other minerals (except iron ore) to erect, maintain and remove all structures, pipe lines, and machinery necessary for the production, transportation and storage of oil, gas or other minerals (except iron ore), provided however said Sulphur Oil Co. shall pay all damages to any improvements on said land, and we do hereby bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators, to warrant and forever defend, all and singular the title to said minerals unto the said Sulphur Oil Co. and its assigns, against every person whomsoever lawfully claiming, or to claim the same, or any part thereof.

'Witness my hand at Atlanta, Tax. this 24 day of June, A.D. 1907.

F. M. Greene.'

In 1909 F. M. Greene conveyed the 238-acre tract by warranty deed to N. J. Pickett, and in this deed the clause appears, 'and except minerals granted to Sulphur Oil Company.'

By a regular chain of conveyances by straight warranty deed (with no reference whatever to the Sulphur Oil Company instrument) the 238-acre tract was conveyed by Pickett and his successors in title to D. J. Wooding. The deed to Wooding dated March 11, 1913, was filed for record on June 15, 1913. On March 17, 1913, just six days after the Wooding deed and prior to the recordation of such deed, F. M. Greene as President of Sulphur Oil Company (the same F. M. Greene hereinbefore referred to) issued a certificate of stock in said oil company to D. J. Wooding for 2.38 shares, which stock was of a par value of $100 per share, making this certificate of the par value of $238. As hereinafter more fully shown, Sulphur Oil Company had acquired its rights in the minerals by certain contractual considerations and by issuing stock in the amount of $1 for each acre of minerals acquired. The 2.38 shares of stock corresponded exactly to the 238 acres of land then owned by D. J. Wooding. D. J. Wooding and F. M. Greene were both deceased long prior to the trial of the case at bar. James B. Wooding, a 55-year-old son of D. J. Wooding, testified that shortly after his father obtained the deed, his father went to see F. M. Greene, President of Sulphur Oil Company, about the minerals in the 238 acres and returned with the certificate of stock which was issued so that his father would get the mineral rights in the land. Wooding also attempted to further testify (which was excluded by the trial court) to the effect that the trip to Greene was quite a topic of conversation in the family and that the stock was issued by Greene on the insistence of D. J. Wooding that the minerals be released back to Wooding and that Greene issued the stock in recognition of Wooding's ownership of the minerals (under the 238 acres) or right to get these minerals from Sulphur Oil Company.

On October 24, 1917, Sulphur Oil Company (by its Vice-President, acting in the absence and disability of its President, F. M. Greene) executed an instrument entitled 'Release Deed,' in favor of F. M. Greene and other various landowners who had executed instruments theretofore to said Oil Company, which instrument reads in part as follows:

'Sulphur Oil Co.

'To,--

'F. M. Greene, et als.

Oil & Gas.

Release Deed Dtd.

Oct. 24th, 1917.

'The State of Texas

'County of Cass.

Know All Men By These Presents:

'That, Whereas, heretofore certain land owners whose names will hereafter appear in the body of this deed, made, executed and delivered to the Sulphur Oil Company a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Texas, for the purposes of exploring for and developing oil and gas in Cass County, Texas and the surrounding counties, and in the State of Louisiana, and the State of Arkansas, deeds to the oil and gas, in and under said lands, owned by said parties, and whereas the said Sulphur Oil Company, in consideration of the transfer of said oil and gas and other minerals, in and under said lands, on its part agreed to bring in a paying well for oil or gas and develope the territory covered by the lands under which the oil and gas was conveyed, or retransfer same to the owner of said land, and whereas said corporation has failed, and does not now own a paying well of oil or gas under any of the said lands, and are not willing to further under take the development of the same, and

'Whereas, when said transfer of said oil and gas and other minerals was made as aforesaid, said Sulphur Oil Company issued to each of said land owners stock in said Sulphur Oil Company, to the amount of one dollar per acre, for each and every acre of land under which said oil and gas was transferred, and

'Whereas, on towit, the 18th day of Oct. 1917, at a called meeting of the directors of said Oil Co., there being a quorum present and participating in said meeting a motion was offered and carried by a unanimous vote of all of said directors, to retransfer all the oil, gas and other minerals in and under said land to the original land owners hereinafter named, in consideration of all of the stock owned or held by said land owners, or their transferees;

'Now, therefore, we the Sulphur Oil Co., by H. A. O'Neal, Vice President of said Co., duly authorized to act as president of same, in the abscence and disability of F. M. Greene, its president, for and in consideration of the cancellation and delivery of said stock to said corporation, have this day and do by these presents, relinquish and convey unto said parties, all the rights, title, interest that the said Sulphur Oil Company has in said oil, gas and other minerals by reason of said conveyances to the said Sulphur Oil Company, to-wit:-* * *'

Note: Other tracts of land are called for and described in this instrument besides the hereinafter referred to tract. To F. M. Greene 1415 acres of land in Cass County, Texas, described in a deed from said named party to Sulphur Oil Company, etc. (This includes the 238 acres in controversy).

'To Have and To Hold unto said respective parties all of said oil, gas and other minerals that were deeded to said Sulphur Oil Company by said parties so that neither the said Sulphur Oil Company, nor any one claiming under it shall hereafter have claim or demand the same or any part thereof.

'In witness whereof the Sulphur Oil Company has caused these presents to be signed by H. A. O'Neal its vice president the president being abscent, thereunto authorized by a vote of the directors of said corporation and its common seal hereto affixed, this the 24 day of Oct., A.D. 1917.

Sulphur Oil Co.,

By H. A. O'Neal

Its Vice President.

'Attest: L. W. Willis

Secretary.

'Corporate Seal'

On October 16, 1920, D. J. Wooding and wife by warranty deed conveyed the 238 acres to their son James B. Wooding. On March 18, 1953, James B. Wooding and wife by warranty deed conveyed the 238 acres to Tom J. Mays, appellee herein, and also delivered the 2.38-share stock certificate to Mr. Mays at the same time. The land in controversy has never produced oil or gas.

F. M. Greene died intestate in Cass County in 1922, and left surviving him his widow, Meda Greene, and one child, Annie Greene, who married L. W. Willis. No administration was had on the estate of F. M. Greene and none was necessary. F. M. Greene never paid any taxes on the minerals under the 238 acres during his lifetime and never leased or attempted to lease the minerals thereon from 1907 to his death in 1922.

An administration was had on the estate of Mrs. Willis, who preceded her husband, L. W. Willis, and her mother, Mrs. Meda Greene, in death about the year 1936. The inventory filed in the estate of Mrs. Willis does not show her as owning or claiming any interest in the minerals under the...