Potter Gas Co. v. Dunshie
| Decision Date | 18 April 1910 |
| Docket Number | 107-1909 |
| Citation | 42 Pa.Super. 457 |
| Parties | Potter Gas Company, Appellant, v. Dunshie |
| Court | Pennsylvania Superior Court |
Argued October 28, 1909
Appeal by plaintiff, from decree of C.P. Potter Co.-1909, No. 1 dismissing bill in equity in case of Potter Gas Company v Fred Dunshie Collector of Sharon Twp. and Sharon School Dist., the Township of Sharon, the School District of Sharon Twp., C. D. Austin et al.
Bill in equity for an injunction. Before Ormerod, P. J.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Superior Court.
Error assigned was decree dismissing the bill.
Affirmed.
Archibald F. Jones, with him W. I. Lewis and R. R. Lewis, for appellant. -- The owner of surface land can no more be held for the tax upon the mineral strata, after a severance, than can the owner of the mine be held for the taxes upon the surface: Caldwell v. Copeland, 37 Pa. 427; Powell v. Lantzy, 173 Pa. 543; Tiley v Moyers, 25 Pa. 397; Canal Company v. Hughes, 183 Pa. 66; Lillibridge v. Coal Company, 143 Pa. 293; Irwin v. Bank, 1 Pa. 349; Logan v. Washington County, 29 Pa. 373; Hutchinson v. Kline, 199 Pa. 564.
A. N. Crandall, for appellees.
Before Rice, P. J., Henderson, Morrison, Orlady, Head, Beaver and Porter, JJ.
The plaintiff company is the successor in title of the Eulalia Gas Company, which secured title to the property affected by this controversy, by deed dated October 6, 1898, between Alfred S. Brown and others and the Eulalia Gas Company, in and by which the grantors convey to the grantees, their successors, and assigns, all the petroleum, gas, etc., contained in 715 acres of land, and by which they are given the right to lay and maintain oil, gas, water, steam lines and pipes upon the premises for the purpose of producing oil and gas therefrom. The important clause in the deed is as follows: " Said second party, its successors, grantees and assigns, shall pay all taxes assessed upon said premises from this date." The land was assessed as a whole until the triennial assessment of 1907, when the original grantors having then parted with their title to the surface, the Potter Gas Company requested the commissioners of Potter county to separately assess the oil, gas and mineral estate, and the surface was assessed in the name of Hall and Brown. In 1908 the assessment of oil, gas and minerals to the plaintiff company was dropped from the records by a mistake; and the assessment of the surface, however, remained unchanged.
The plaintiff company is operating twenty-three wells upon this tract, which produce both petroleum oil and natural gas, and is occupying the surface of the land in the usual and customary manner, for the purpose of producing oil and gas by the methods in general use.
The tax collector for the purpose of collecting the tax for the years 1907 and 1908, against the surface of the land, levied on the personal property of the gas company, when the plaintiff filed a bill in equity to restrain the collector from selling the property, claiming that it was not an occupier of the surface within the meaning of the tax laws. The case was heard on bill and answer, when the court dismissed the bill holding that the plaintiff was an occupier of the surface, and that as the conveyance of the oil, gas and mineral estate contained a covenant in regard to the payment of taxes, the plaintiff had no standing in a court of equity. The court found as a fact, which is not excepted to, that the plaintiff company had occupied the land for several years by its employees and teams for all operating...
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