Opinion ID: 1154750
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Construction of Contracts.

Text: In interpreting mining agreements, courts generally have applied the rules for interpreting contracts and leases. 4 American Law of Mining § 130.04, at 130-9 (2d ed. 1992). That is, courts will give effect to the intent of the parties, and when the terms of the agreement are clear and unambiguous, courts try to ascertain the intent of the parties from the ordinary meaning of the language in the agreement. Id. This has long been the rule in New Mexico: The primary objective in construing a contract is to ascertain the intention of the parties. Mobile Investors v. Spratte, 93 N.M. 752, 753, 605 P.2d 1151, 1152 (1980). The purpose, meaning and intent of the parties to a contract is to be deduced from the language employed by them; and where such language is not ambiguous, it is conclusive. The court's duty is confined to interpretation of the contract which the parties made for themselves and may not alter or make a new agreement for the parties. Davies v. Boyd, 73 N.M. 85, 87-88, 385 P.2d 950, 951 (1963). We are impressed with a Texas court's analysis of whether an implied covenant exists in the context of mining law, and we adopt it. The Texas Court of Civil Appeals has stated: In the outset it should be noted that when parties reduce their agreements to writing, the written instrument is presumed to embody their entire contract, and the court should not read into the instrument additional provisions unless this be necessary in order to effectuate the intention of the parties as disclosed by the contract as a whole. An implied covenant must rest entirely on the presumed intention of the parties as gathered from the terms as actually expressed in the written instrument itself, and it must appear that it was so clearly within the contemplation of the parties that they deemed it unnecessary to express it, and therefore omitted to do so, or it must appear that it is necessary to infer such a covenant in order to effectuate the full purpose of the contract as a whole as gathered from the written instrument. It is not enough to say that an implied covenant is necessary in order to make the contract fair, or that without such a covenant it would be improvident or unwise, or that the contract would operate unjustly. It must arise from the presumed intention of the parties as gathered from the instrument as a whole. Kingsley v. Western Natural Gas Co., 393 S.W.2d 345, 350-51 (Tex.Civ.App.1965) (quoting Danciger Oil & Refining Co. of Tex. v. Powell, 137 Tex. 484, 154 S.W.2d 632 (1941)).