Wilson et al v. Youst et al.
| Decision Date | 17 November 1897 |
| Citation | 43 W.Va. 826 |
| Parties | Wilson et al v. Youst et al. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Petroleum oil, as it is found in the cavities of the rock, is part of the realty, and embraced in the comprehensive idea which the law attaches to the word "land." (p. 834.)
The only manner in which a guardian can lease or sell the land of his ward for the purpose of its development, or any other purpose, is in the manner prescribed by statute, under a decree of the court, (p. 834.)]
The petroleum oil underlying a tract of land which has been devised to a life tenant who is in possession, and which is to go to certain infant children after the decease of the Life tenant, may be sold, upon the petition of the guardian of said infants, under the provisions of chapter 82 of the Code, or leased; and the life tenant will be entitled to the interest on the royalty during-the continuance of the life estate, and then the residue or corpus of the royalty will he paid to the remainder-men. (p. 835.)
An oil lease, investing the lessee with the right to remove all the oil in place in the premises, in consideration of his giving the lessors a certain per cent, thereof, is, in legal effect, a sale of a portion of the land, and the proceeds represent the respective interests of the lessors in the premises, (p. 839.)
Appeal from Circuit Court, Marion County.
Bill by Thomas J. Wilson and others against Susanna Youst and others. From a decree dismissing their bill, plaintiffs appeal.
Reversed.
John Bassel, Charles Powell and W. P. Hubbard, for appellants.
John W. Mason, for appellees.
English, President:
J. I). Youst, by his last will and testament, bearing date on the 29th day of November, 1881, devised his home tract of land, situated in Marion County, W. Va., to his wife, Susanna Youst, during her natural life, and at the death of said Susanna Youst said tract of land was devised to Hermenia Wilson, the wife of AlpheusM. Wilson, during her natural life, to be held by her free from the control of her husband, Alpheus Wilson, as her separate property and estate, and to descend to her heirs at her death; stating in said will that it was his intention to give said home tract of land to his wife for and during her life, and after her decease to the said Hermenia C. Wilson for and during her life, and at her death to descend to her heirs, but with the following charge, limitation and direction, viz.: That if the said Hermenia C. Wilson should not survive his wife, so as to come into possession of said home tract of land, and dying during the lifetime of his wife, should leave, surviving her (said Hermenia C. Wilson) no child or children, nor the descendants of any children, then, instead of said tract of land going to the heirs of Hermenia C, he directed that one half of said home tract of land should, at the death of his wife, go to, and be the property of, her said husband, Alpheus M. Wilson, if living, and the other half to the heirs of his sister, Eliza Wade, and the heirs of his deceased brother, Nicholas B. Youst, by his first wife, etc.
This will was duly admitted to probate on the 14th day of March, 1889. Alpheus M. Wilson died on the 29th day of November, 1891, and left surviving him, by his wife, Hermenia, three children Thomas J., Jehu D., and Clarence L. Wilson. Another child (Stella May Wilson) was born January 11, 1891, and died in April, 1892. After the death of her husband, Alpheus M. Wilson, his widow, Hermenia, was married on the 8th day of June, 1893, to one-James W. Powell, by whom she had one child, named Minnie 0. Powell, and died in November, 1893, leaving surviving her, her husband, said James W. Powell, and tour children three by the first husband, and one by the latter. On the 12th day of July, 1890, the said Susanna Youst, and Hermenia 0. Wilson and A. M. Wilson, her husband, and Alpheus M. Wilson, as guardian of Thomas J. Wilson, Jehu I). Wilson, and Clarence L. Wilson, infant children of said Hermenia C. Wilson, leased said tract of land, containing two hundred and fifty-five acres, more or less, to the firm of 0. E. Wells & Co., for the purpose of mining and operating thereon for oil and gas, for the consideration of one-eighth royalty for all oil removed, and two hundred dollars a year for the gas from each and every gas well drilled on said premises. On the day of November, 1890, the said Alpheus M. Wilson, as guardian for Thomas J. Wilson, Jehu I). Wilson, and Clarence L. Wilson, infant children of Hermenia C. Wilson and Alpheus M. Wilson, filed a petition in the circuit court of Marion county, pursuant to section 12 of chapter 83 of the Code of West Virginia, praying the sale of the interest of his wards in the oil and gas underlying or contained in said tract of land; and such proceedings were had therein that on the 29th day of November, 1890, a decree was entered by said circuit court directing that said A. M. Wilson, as such guardian, should sell the oil and gas underlying said land, either at public or private sale, by making a lease of said land for oil purposes for a term of years, for which the lessee was to deliver oneeighth, of the oil as rental or royalty, one-third of which eighth was to be delivered to the said three infants or their guardian. It appears that in pursuance of said decree the guardian of said infants executed a lease of said land, or of the infants' interest in the oil therein, to C. E. Wells and others, who subsequently assigned said lease to the South Penn Oil Oompany, and reported said lease to the court, which was confirmed in December, 1890. If further appears that said South Penn Oil Company, proceeded at once to bore for oil from it; that by the 1st day of June, 1894, the royalty of one-eighth of the oil obtained from said land amounted in value to the sum of twenty-two thousand dollars. Said Susanna Youst and Hermenia C. Wilson, shortly after the rendering of said decree, assigned two-thirds of said one-eighth of said royalty to one S. B. Hughes, who up to the 1st day of July, 1894, had received about fifteen thousand dollars as the two-thirds of said royalty thus assigned to him.
After the lease of said land for oil purposes was confirmed, another child was born to said Hermenia 0. and Alpheus M. Wilson, which was named Stella May, and she was admitted by a subsequent decree of said court to share in said royalty; which last-named child was born on the 11th day of January, 1891, and died in April, 1892. Said Alpheus M. Wilson died on the 29th day of November, 1891. In 1893 his widow intermarried with one James W.Powell, by whom she had one child, Minnie 0. Powell; and a few days after the birth of said Minnie 0. Powell the said Hermenia Powell died intestate, leaving her husband, said James W. Powell, and four children; and in January, 1894, upon petition filed in the intermediate court, said Minnie 0. Powell was admitted as a co-owner in the one-eighth of said royalty. Said Susanna Youst is still living; and the said infant children, Thomas J. Wilson, Jehu I). Wilson, Clarence L. Wilson and Minnie C. Powell, by their next friend, Harrison Mauley, filed a bill in the circuit court of said county of Marion, attacking said proceeding as being erroneous and void so far as it was decreed that said infants should share equally with Susanna Youst and Hermenia 0. Wilson, and Alpheus M. Wilson, her husband, in the value and production of the oil and gas in and under the land in said petition and exibits described, giving to said infants the one-third of said royalty; claiming that, said oil being part of the real estate, the life-tenant during her natural life, was entitled to the interest upon the sum realized as royalty, and that said Hughes, as assignee of the life tenants, should be compelled to account for all money received by him as royalty in excess of annual interest upon the one-eighth of the oil paid by said lessee, and praying the appointment of a receiver to collect said royalty during the life of said Susanna Youst, and that he be required to pay the interest annually upon the same to said Hughes, and that the entire principal should at the death of said Susanna Youst be paid to petitioners. The complainants in said bill alleged that the decree of November 29, 1890, was based upon the supposition that the three children of said A. M. Wilson and Hermenia C. Wilson were the owners in fee simple of said land, subject to the life estate of said Susanna Youst and said Hermenia, and ignored the fact that other and different persons might be the heirs at law of said Hermenia at her death;. and they further alleged that the circuit court of Marion county had no authority to take from the complainants, and give to said Susanna Youst and Hermenia C.Wilson, any part of the body of said real estate, as was done by said decree of November 29, 1890, and the subsequent decree confirming the sale to said Wells.
The South Penn Oil Company answered said bill, in which answer, after stating the manner in which it claimed the right to the lease of said tract of land for oil purposes, it alleged that said royalty of one-eighth of all the oil produced and saved from said land had been delivered to the Eureka Pipe Line Company, a common carrier of oil, in accordance with the rules and customs of the business, and in accordance with the terms and provisions of said contract, and the proceedings and decrees under which said interests were sold, and under which its right accrued to bore for and produce said oil, and that all of said oneeighth royalty of the said oil as was produced and saved from said land, except so much thereof as may remain unsold and in the custody of the pipe line company, had been delivered to S. B. Hughes, assignee and grantee of Susanna Youst and Hermenia C. Wilson, and to the guardian of said infants,...
To continue reading
Request your trial