Mfr.s Light v. Lemasters S.

• Decision Date: 25 April 1922
• Docket Number: No. 4328.,4328.
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: Manufacturers Light & Heat Co. v. Alvy U. Lemasters et als.

91 W.Va. 1

Manufacturers Light & Heat Co.

v.Alvy U. Lemasters et als.

No. 4328

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted April 18, 1922.

Decided April 25, 1922.

Partiks Court Should See That Interested Persona arc Made Parties Before Entering Decree Affecting Their Interests. Generally, all persons who are materially interested in the subject-matter involved in a suit and who will be affected by the result of the proceedings should be made parties thereto, and when the attention of the court is called to the absence of any of such interested persons it should see that they are made parties before entering a decree affecting their interests.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Tyler County.

Bill of interpleader by Manufacturers' Light & Heat Company against Alvy U. Lemasters and others. From a decree therein, plaintiff: ' appeals.

Reversed and, remanded.

Boreman & Carter, for appellant. Underwood & Moore, for appellee Enoch S. Lemasters. T. M. Mclntire and J. W. Mclntire, for appellees Alvy V. Lemasters and others.

Meredith, Judge:

Plaintiff filed its bill of interpleader against Alvy U. Lemasters and Mollie E. Lemasters, his wife, Stella A. Lo masters and H. 0. Lemasters, her husband, and Enoch S. Lemasters, averring that, by an assignment from Tri-State Gas Company, it became the owner of an oil and gas lease covering 245 acres of land in Tyler County; that the lease was executed by 0. W. 0. Hardman, as guardian of the infant children of Amos Lemasters, deceased, on September 7, 1898, to E. II. Jennings and Brothers, and was assigned by them to the Tri-State Gas Company, and by it assigned to plaintiff; that the lessees before their assignment to Tri-State Gas Company drilled a gas well on the tract which ever since has been and is now producing gas in paying quantities; that since plaintiff became the owner of the lease, it has drilled a second well on said tract which ever since has been and is now producing gas in paying quantities; that plaintiff is entitled to pay $300 per year for each of said gas weds. It further shows that after the execution of the lease, the 245 acre tract was partitioned among the heirs of Amos Lemasters, deceased, and the widow's dower was assigned; that out of the tract a parcel of 31 1-2 acres was assigned to the defendant, Stella A. Lemasters, and a parcel of 17 acres was assigned to defendant, Alvy U. Lemasters, children and heirs at law of Amos Lemasters, deceased; that on February 26, 1908, defendants, Stella A. Lemasters and husband, conveyed the 31 1-2 acre tract, subject to certain reservations to defendant, Alvy IT. Lemasters, and a copy of the deed is exhibited; that on February 26, 1914, defendants, Alvy IT. Lemasters and wife, conveyed to defendant, Enoch S. Lemasters, the 31 1-2 acre tract and the 17 acre tract, subject to certain reservations, and a copy of that deed is also exhibited. Plaintiff also avers that whatever rights were reserved by Stella A. Lemasters and Alvy IT. Lemasters in their respective deeds are still owned by them; while these reservations are not stated in the bill, yet the deeds show that they relate to the royalty oil which may be produced and the gas rentals which may arise from the particular tract or tracts conveyed by the deeds. Plaintiff avers that these two tracts are parts of the larger tract of 245 acres; that the lease was executed before the land was partitioned and dower assigned; that the two wells are located on the 245 acre tract but the plaintiff does not know whether they or either of them are on the 17 acre tract or on the 31 1-2 acre tract.

Plaintiff says that it has made all payments for the gas wells, required by the lease, and to the parties entitled thereto, except the one-fourth part now held by plaintiff, amounting to $450, and which amount is claimed by the defendants and that their claims thereto are conflicting; that plaintiff claims no interest in the subject of these conflicting claims and stands indifferent between the claimants and is willing to pay the amount to whomsoever may be entitled thereto, but it can not pay it with safety until they interplead and have their rights fixed and determined by the court and offers to pay the money into court or pay it as the court may direct. The bill is properly verified, but it will be observed it does not exhibit the original lease nor does it in anywise refer to any rights to gas rentals that may thereafter accrue nor to any oil that may be thereafter produced. The bill refers only to the $450 then in plaintiff's hands.

On February 26, 1920, a decree was entered requiring defendants to interplead and litigate their rights to the $450 and it was also decreed that plaintiff had no interest in the fund and that it pay the $450 to the clerk of the court, to be held by him pending the court's further order.

The defendants answered, setting up their respective claims not only to the $450 but also to the royalties of oil and gas that may be thereafter produced from the 31 1-2 acre tract, the 17 acre tract, and the residue of the 245 acre tract. From the answers and agreed statement of facts upon which the case was heard, it appears that Amos Lemasters died June 2, 1891, seized of the 245 acres, leaving surviving him Eliza A. Lemasters, his widow, and Lydia M. Ilaught, Lenora J. Lemasters, Albert Lemasters, Stella A. Lemasters, Nancy J. McKee, Laura B. Tennant, Alvy U. Lemasters and Lillie M. Ankrom, his only children and heirs at law; that under the lease made by the widow and heirs, dated September 19, 1898, the 245 acres were leased for oil and gas purposes to E. H. Jennings and Brothers, which lease by various assignments is now owned by the plaintiff; that under said lease and prior to September 16, 1899, and before the institution of the suit for the assignment of dower in the land and partition thereof among the heirs, the original lessee drilled one well on the 245 acres, which well has been ever since and is now producing gas in paying quantities; the lands were on April 11, 1900, allotted and partitioned among the said widow and heirs at law but no partition was made of the, oil and gas or the oil and gas rights and privileges in said lands in said partition suit or proceedings or since that time; that after partition a second well was drilled thereon by the then lessee which produced and is still producing gas in paying quantities; that the annual rental for the gas produced from the first gas well before the said partition, was divided equally among the eight heirs at law, and that after the said partition the said rentals were divided equally among the owners of the eight parts of the land allotted to the said heirs at law, each taking the one-eighth part, and that the annual rental for the second gas well was paid by the then lessee to the rightful owners of said parts of said land allotted to the said heirs at law, each taking the one-eighth part thereof; that the annual rental for the two gas wells was continued to be paid to the said owners of said eight allotted parts and equally divided among them until the year 1916, since which time two-eighths, or one-fourth, of the said annual rental, representing the two interests in said land, now owned by Enoch S. Lemasters has not been paid, but the other six-eighths of the said annual rental from said gas wells has been paid up to the present time to the other six owners of the said allotted parts of said land or to their assigns; that the annual rental or royalty from each of said wells is $300; that the first gas well drilled upon the 245 acres was drilled on the part of said laud wthich was assigned to the widow, Eliza A. Lemasters, as her dower, which land so allotted to the said widow is now owned by Jane Lemasters, she having become the owner of the dower interest of Eliza A. Lemasters which was sold in a creditors' suit, through certain deeds, one-fourth from the purchasers at the sale in said creditors' suit and certain interests through deeds from Lenora J. Tennant, Lydia M. Haught and Stella A. Lemasters, and the remainder in said dower interest by deeds from certain other heirs at...