The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1916-01-21

facts in that case warranted the court
in the conclusion reached.
Such leases have been viewed by
many Of the legal profession, hereto
ore, as granting five.year term
lease and the only remedy of the les
sor for failure to drill or pay rents
In the hands of ore against whom a
| judgment would be uncollectable
there was no relief for the lessor
The present ruling removes. that
hardship and gives the lessor the
right to declare them void upon fail
ure to pay the rent in advance. This
is as far as the court goes, and while
judge Turner discusses in the opin
ion leases which have been construed
mere options for tho term, so-called
unless" leases. the decision did not
in my judgment change the rule here.
tofore promulgated by that court that
unless the payment was made in ad
vance the lease by its own terms
become void. There may be some of
the unless" form of leases being
used with a surrender clause, but If
| there is such clause would be only
surplusage, as it would benefit the
lessor only to have the lease sur
rendered during the period for which
the rentals had been paid and would
be of no avail if the rentals were not
paid There is some similarity be-
tween the so-called cor" leases and
the unless" leases, but there are
many unless" leases as well as "or'
leases which could not receive the
similar construction by any court
The most common form of unless
leases agree to commence a well
within a certain time or the lease
shall become null and void unless
money is paid to delay the compile
ton of such well. The lessee would
be met in the latter case with the
same difficulty as was experienced in
the Brown-Wilson case of presenting
to the lessor a payment for the delay
in the completion of a well that had
never been commenced. Necessarily
therefore. each form of lease must
rest upon its own terms and the gen
eral principles announced - our SUI
preme court followed.
The court does not hold that either
an cor" lease or an "unless' lease
may be cancelled as a cloud upon
the title when the lessee has in good
faith commenced drilling upon the
land or paid or rendered the rentals in
advance. On the other hand, the
opinion strongly intimates the reverse,
whether a surrender clause Is con
tanned in the lease or not. The case
does not affect leases with a surren-
der clause to the extent that the Hill
on G. Gas company VS.. White ct al,
nor does it call for any severe criti-
cism of the supreme court. 1t does
not hold that a sufficient bonus may
not be paid the lessor to support any
and all clauses in the lease form con-
strued and they would have been JUS
tilted in going further in a proper
case. II nowhere intimates that the
lessor may refuse to accept the rent
ais if rendered timely, nor does it
do more than declare that the lessee
by his own acts may abandon his
rights by delay. Among the hun
dreds of different forms of leases
used in Oklahoma each must stand
the test of fair and equitable con-
struction having in view the best in
terest of both parties. If the supreme
court does this it is as much as the
profession can expect and to more
than that they are certainly not en-
titled. They say that a lawyer never
reaches maturity in the profession
until he has been beautifully trim
med" in a few lawsuits. Perhaps this
is the reason why some of us have
learned to take defeat gracefully.
Respectfully,
L. s. DOLMAN.