Court Opinion

ID: 9792281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:26:34.849782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:41.636926
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
concurring specially.
I find additional insight into the proper construction of the Agreement and Easement by looking to the language of paragraph eight of that document and the manner in which it was followed by the parties. That paragraph of the Agreement and Easement reads:
8. Grantee shall as part of the consideration for the easement herein granted pay Grantors the sum of one and one-half cents ($.015) per ton of material hauled by Grantee (or by a contractor or contractors employed by Grantee) over the road. Payment of the royalties herein provided shall be made by Grantee to Grantors monthly, the first such payment to be made one month and ten days following the hauling of the first load of material over the road, and subsequent payments to be made to Grantors by Grantee at monthly intervals thereafter. It is specifically provided, however, that in the event that the royalties so paid Grantors by Grantee for any six month period as herein defined, to-wit: the first six month period to end six months after the date of the first such monthly payment, and each subsequent six month period to end at six month intervals thereafter; prior to Grantee’s cessation of use of the road for a period of twelve consecutive months total less than One Thousand and No/100 ($1,000.00) Dollars, Grantee shall pay Grantors the difference between the total monthly royalties so paid by Grantee to Grantors during such six month period and One Thousand and No/ 100 ($1,000.00) Dollars.
There appears to be no question that these payments were made in the amount of $1,000.00 each six months since 1986. Under the clear language of paragraph eight those payments were only to be made “prior to Grantee’s cessation of use of the road for a period of twelve consecutive months * * During those years, Mountain Cement was not hauling materials to its plant over the easement, but it was using the road for other purposes and maintaining it. Consequently, there was not a total cessation of use such as paragraph four of the Agreement and Easement seems to contemplate, and the parties *34manifested their accord in that regard by the payment and receipt of the minimum royalties.
It is clear to me that up until the commencement of this action the parties understood their agreement to permit Mountain Cement to not use the road to haul materials to its plant so long as the minimum royalty was paid. Since there was some use of the road and those payments were made, the Agreement and Easement did not terminate under paragraph four. The only other possibility is termination under paragraph two, and it is clear that Mountain Cement did not determine, in its sole discretion, that the road was no longer useful to transport material to its plant.
The result of the majority opinion is entirely consistent with such a resolution, and I am in full accord with that disposition.