Court Opinion

ID: 9666162
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:06:53.00581+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:24.297363
License: Public Domain

MAUZY, Justice,
concurring.
I join the court in overruling our regrettable decision in Alford v. Krum, 671 S.W.2d 870 (Tex.1984). I would go one step further, however, and adopt Chief Justice Pope’s dissenting opinion in that case. As Chief Justice Pope observed, our interpretation of deeds should not be dictated by arbitrary rules like the “repugnant to the grant” rule which moved the Alford majority. Rather, our method for understanding the meaning of a deed should be “to ascertain the intention of the parties, when it can be ascertained from a consideration of all parts of the instrument.” 671 S.W.2d at 876. In the present case, the evident intention of the parties was to convey one-fourth of the royalties reserved under the existing and all future leases. For that reason, I concur.