Opinion ID: 2448635
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Oil and Gas Lease Construction

Text: The question of whether a contract is ambiguous is one of law for the court. R & P Enters. v. LaGuarta, Gavrel & Kirk, Inc., 596 S.W.2d 517, 518 (Tex.1980). A contract is ambiguous when its meaning is uncertain and doubtful or is reasonably susceptible to more than one interpretation. Coker v. Coker, 650 S.W.2d 391, 393 (Tex.1983). In construing an unambiguous oil and gas lease our task is to ascertain the parties' intentions as expressed in the lease. Sun Oil Co. v. Madeley, 626 S.W.2d 726, 727-28 (Tex.1981); McMahon v. Christmann, 157 Tex. 403, 303 S.W.2d 341, 344 (1957). To achieve this goal, we examine the entire document and consider each part with every other part so that the effect and meaning of one part on any other part may be determined. Steeger v. Beard Drilling, 371 S.W.2d 684, 688 (Tex.1963). We presume that the parties to a contract intend every clause to have some effect. Ogden v. Dickinson State Bank, 662 S.W.2d 330, 331 (Tex.1983). We give terms their plain, ordinary, and generally accepted meaning unless the instrument shows that the parties used them in a technical or different sense. Western Reserve Life Ins. Co. v. Meadows, 152 Tex. 559, 261 S.W.2d 554, 557 (1953), cert. denied, 347 U.S. 928, 74 S.Ct. 531, 98 L.Ed. 1081 (1954). This Court will enforce the unambiguous document as written. Sun Oil Co., 626 S.W.2d at 728. Both the trial court and the court of appeals determined that the leases in question were unambiguous. We agree.