Perry Coal Co. v. Richmond

• Decision Date: 09 November 1936
• Docket Number: Ag. No. 9.
• Citation: 287 Ill.App. 298,4 N.E.2d 891
• Parties: PERRY COAL CO. v. RICHMOND ET AL.
• Court: United States Appellate Court of Illinois

287 Ill.App. 298

4 N.E.2d 891

PERRY COAL CO.

v.RICHMOND ET AL.

Ag. No. 9.

Appellate Court of Illinois, Fourth District.

Nov. 9, 1936.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Perry County; D. H. Mudge, Judge.

Interpleader proceeding by the Perry Coal Company against M. J. Richmond, Ella Richmond, and others. During the pendency of the suit, Ella Richmond died, and M. J. Richmond, as her administrator, and Harold T. Richmond, as her heir, were made parties defendant, and the named defendants filed a cross-bill. From an adverse decree, M. J. Richmond, individually and as administrator of the estate of Ella Richmond, deceased, and Harold T. Richmond appeal.

Affirmed.

Transferred from Supreme Court, 362 Ill. 487, 200 N.E. 329. Farmer, Klingel & Baltz, of Belleville, for appellants.

M. C. Young, of St. Louis, Mo., and J. Fred Gilster, of Chester, for appellees.

EDWARDS, Justice.

On September 18, 1901, Robert Blair and Mary Blair, his wife, conveyed to the Coulterville Home Mining Company all interest in and to the coal and salt lying under the surface of certain described lands, in consideration of $1 and “one and one-half per cent per ton, royalty, mine run, for each and every ton of coal mined from the premises. * * * And when so mined or produced, to pay to the said grantors, their heirs or assigns, the said sum of money and royalty above specified, on or before the 15th day of each month”; which agreement was filed for record the succeeding day. The grantors thereafter died intestate, leaving as their only heirs appellees James E. Blair and Mayme Cairns.

Appellees, in 1922, filed a bill to partition the said lands, in which they averred that they were the sole owners of same, as tenants in common, each owning an undivided one-half interest therein. The lands were sold by the master in chancery, pursuant to decree entered in such suit, and appellants M. J. Richmond, and Ella Richmond now deceased, became the purchasers thereof.

In 1930 appellee Perry Coal Company had by mesne conveyances become the owner of all that which was conveyed in the said instrument of September 18, 1901. Certain royalties, amounting to $227.16, had accrued on account of coal mined from said premises. The Perry Coal Company filed its bill of interpleader in the usual form, asking that appellees James E. Blair and Mayme Cairns and appellants M. J. Richmond and Ella Richmond, interplead as to their respective contentions as to claims of ownership in said royalties, and that the court hear and determine the same. Appellees James E. Blair and Mayme Cairns filed their answer, claiming ownership of said royalties.

Ella Richmond died pending the suit, and M. J. Richmond as her administrator, and Harold T. Richmond as her heir, were made parties defendant thereto. The said last two named parties, who, together with said M. J. Richmond, are appellants herein, filed their answer averring that in said partition suit said James E. Blair and Mayme Cairns alleged they were the sole owners of, and that no other person had any interest in, such premises; that at the hearing they so testified; that the court by decree found such to be the fact; that such premises, pursuant to decree which ordered the master to make sale without reservation or exception as to the coal, were so sold; the master, prior to sale, making an announcement to that effect; that appellees did not object thereto; that in the administration of the estates of Robert Blair and Mary Blair no coal rights were inventoried as part of such estates; and that as a consequence appellees were estopped to claim any interest in or title to either the coal underlying said premises, or the royalties resulting from the mining thereof.

Appellants also filed their cross-bill, setting forth the same facts averred in the answer; also alleging that the claims of appellees were a cloud upon their title and right to said coal and the royalties to be derived from mining same, and praying that all further royalties be decreed to be the property of appellants, and that the claims of appellees therein be vacated and voided, and canceled as a cloud upon the title of appellants thereto.

Appellees moved to strike the answer and cross-bill; the motion was sustained; appellants refused to further plead, and decree was entered holding appellees to be entitled to such royalties, and this appeal is prosecuted to reverse said decree.

In Manning v. Frazier, 96 Ill. 279, where the court had under consideration a conveyance very similar to the one in question, the holding was that the conveyance vested the grantee with ownership of the coal; that the price agreed to be paid for each ton of coal as it was removed, and settlements therefor to be made each three months, was merely a mode of ascertaining the amount of purchase money to be paid for the coal so conveyed as realty, and the transaction amounted to a sale and conveyance of the coal, on credit, and the money so to be paid was purchase money for the conveyance of the coal, that the title to the coal was in the grantee, and that the grantor had a vendor's lien thereon to...