Treat v. Rogers

• Decision Date: 09 October 1929
• Docket Number: No. 8493.,8493.
• Citation: 35 F.2d 77
• Parties: TREAT v. ROGERS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

35 F.2d 77 (1929)

TREAT v. ROGERS.

No. 8493.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

October 9, 1929.

L. B. Smead, H. P. Smead, and Robert C. Knox, all of El Dorado, Ark., for appellant.

Syd Reagan, Neill C. Marsh, C. W. McKay, and Tom Marlin, all of El Dorado, Ark., for appellee.

Before KENYON and VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judges, and MARTINEAU, District Judge.

VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge.

This is a suit in equity to set aside a mineral deed given by Richard Pumphrey, a colored man, to appellant, upon 270 acres of land in Union county, Arkansas. Contemporaneously therewith appellant procured from Pumphrey, for the Ohio Oil Company, a corporation for which appellant was agent, an oil and gas lease covering the same property, which constituted all the land owned by Pumphrey. The mineral deed in suit bears date December 30, 1926, but was actually signed on the 4th day of January, 1927, and the consideration named and paid therefor was $500. If sustained, it gives to Treat, appellant herein, one-half of the royalties accruing under the oil and gas lease granted to the Ohio Oil Company, for which appellant was agent.

The oil lease itself is not in evidence, but it does not appear that its validity is contested, nor that complaint is made of its terms. It appears from the testimony that Richard Pumphrey was, at the time the deed was given, a colored man of advanced years. His age is placed by witnesses with reasonable certainty at between 80 and 90 years. He was admittedly ignorant, unable to read or write, and because of age, and feebleness of mind and body, his son and daughter had been managing and transacting for him all matters of business. In December, 1927, he was officially declared to be a person of unsound mind by the probate court of Union county, Arkansas, and one W. F. Rogers was duly appointed guardian of his person and estate. In the latter part of December, 1926, appellant, accompanied by one J. R. Ramsey, a notary public, came to the home of Pumphrey, and sought to obtain from him one-half of the oil, gas, and other minerals lying in, on, and under the lands heretofore mentioned, for a consideration of $500. The Ohio Oil Company already held, by assignment from one Beecher, an oil and gas lease, executed in 1919, granting the right to drill upon this land for oil or gas for a period of 10 years thereafter. This lease is said to have contained a misdescription. The Ohio Oil Company desired to secure a new lease, for the purpose of correcting the description, and of extending the terms and period of operation, and for some time prior to the transactions here involved appellant had been engaged in procuring oil and gas leases for the Ohio Oil Company upon lands in...