Court Opinion

ID: 9664778
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:29:44.713784+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:10.131337
License: Public Domain

W. O. MURRAY, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
I do not concur in the majority opinion and therefore herein state my reason for such dissent.
The majority opinion correctly states that the first question raised is as follows:
“(1) Whether an assignee of a lesser tract of land out of a larger tract covered by a base oil, gas and mineral lease, by releasing and surrendering the lesser part on which there is paying production and simultaneously taking back a new lease from the landowner, thereby effects a surrender and destruction of the entire base lease, though production in paying quantities continued without interruption.”
It might here be stated that the as-signee of the lesser tract had a complete and absolute transfer of all the rights, title and interest of the original lessee of the larger tract, and there was nothing in the assignment that prohibited him from surrendering that part of the lease owned by him, or required him to have the consent of the assignor before he could effectively surrender his part of the lease. Nor was there any other provision in the assignment that in any way restricted assignee’s right to surrender its part of the lease. There was an outstanding over-riding royalty, but this does not prevent a surrender of the lease. Under such circumstances, assignee has a perfect legal right to surrender its-part of the lease, and appellants have not shown themselves to have any right to object to such surrender, or to have a right to set it aside, especially since the surrender was accomplished with the consent of the original lessor or those standing in the shoes of such lessor. Appellants will not *923be heard to complain because appellee has done that which it had a right to do.
Where an assignee has a legal right to surrender its part of the lease to the original lessor, strangers to such transaction will not be heard to object, and any attempt to set aside such surrender will be denied.
After the surrender of that portion of the original lease held by assignee, and after the expiration of the twenty-five year period, there was no production on that part of the lease which had not been surrendered, and therefore the base lease terminated by its own provisions.
After the termination of the base lease appellees were free to acquire from the landowner a new lease upon the entire original tract or any fractional part thereof. There is no contention that assignee acted fraudulently in surrendering its part of the lease. The fact that after the old lease was surrendered and the new lease became effective, salt was produced from a part of the 3,100-acre tract covered by the original lease, is immaterial, as such production was under the new lease and not under the original lease, although upon land at one time covered by the original lease.
I have found no authority directly in point, but feel these conclusions can easily be arrived at from many authorities which indirectly support them.