Court Opinion

ID: 9725263
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 11:37:33.818086+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:13.106777
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion
Jackson, J.
— The only question I care to discuss in this dissent, is the obvious error of the trial court in its judgment herein.
*18The finding of facts and conclusions of law entered by the court recited inter alia that the contract entered into on May 14, 1954, at page 8, paragraph (11) provided :
“In the event of further development of the oil and gas leases and leasehold estates hereinabove assigned and described, or any subsequently acquired lease or leases, as provided in the above paragraph, for the production of oil and gas by drilling new wells, then it is the understanding and agreement that the Assignors and Assignee herein shall share equally in the expense of such subsequent well or wells.” [Emphasis supplied]
Paragraph four of such finding recites that Jones Drilling Corporation acquired an oil and gas lease from Higby, as guardian of Harriett Lavanda Higby on certain described real estate, “that pursuant to said paragraph (11) page 8, of said contract and assignment above mentioned, the said Jones Drilling Corporation assigned an undivided one-half working interest in said lease ... to the said Morris Rotman and Joe Feldman ...."
Paragraph five of such finding recites that Jones Drilling Corporation procured an oil and gas lease from Florence G. Ritchey and G. W. Gambill and wife, covering certain real estate therein described. That Jones Drilling Company (sic) assigned to Morris Rotman and Joe Feldman an undivided one-half interest in such lease.
Paragraph eleven of said finding reads as follows:
“That all of the interest of defendants in the oil and gas leases named in said contract dated May 14, 1954, and in all subsequent acquired leases pursuant to the terms of said contract, shall revert to and be oioned by plaintiffs and that all assignments with reference to the oil and gas leases de*19scribed in plaintiffs complaint and all oil and gas leases afterwards acquired by defendants pursuant to the terms of said original contract and assignments shall be cancelled and declared null and void and that the defendants shall have no interest therein.” [Emphasis supplied.]
Thereafter the court stated its conclusions of law on the facts found, paragraph four of such conclusion reading as follows:
“4. That all the interest of defendants in the oil and gas leases named in said contract, dated May 14, 1954, and in all subsequent acquired leases pursuant to the terms of said contract, shall revert to and be owned by plaintiffs, and that all assignments with reference to the oil and gas leases described in plaintiffs’ complaint and all oil and gas leases afterwards acquired by defendants pursuant to the terms of said originad contract and assignment shall be cancelled and declared null and void and that the defendants shall have no interest therein, and that the original contract dated May 14, 1954, is hereby cancelled.”
Thereafter the court rendered judgment, in pertinent part inter alia, as follows:
“It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the Court that all interest of the defendant Jones Drilling Corporation in the oil and gas leases named in said contract, dated May 14, 1954, and all subsequent acquired leases, pursuant to the terms of said contract, revert to and does now revert to, and is owned by the plaintiffs in the respective interests owned by the plaintiffs, and further, that defendant, Jones Drilling Corporation has no interest therein.” [Emphasis supplied.]
I point out that the action of the court by its findings that “all oil and gas leases afterwards acquired by defendants . . . shall be cancelled and declared null and void and that the defendants shall have no interest *20therein” [emphasis supplied] goes beyond the issues and parties to this action and attempts to adjudicate rights of third persons not parties to this action.
I further point out that in the after acquired leases, the defendants conveyed a one-half interest in their leases to the plaintiffs. The plain language of the judgment is contradictory in that it says the interest of the defendant Jones Drilling Corporation in the after acquired (their) leases shall revert to the plaintiffs. To revert to the plaintiffs, they would of necessity have had to be the former owners of the after acquired leases which they were not.
These questions, and others not discussed in this dissent, were properly raised and saved in the motion for new trial and assignment of error by the appellants and were argued in their brief.
The cause should be reversed and remanded to the trial court with instructions to sustain the motion for a new trial.
Note. — Reported in 195 N. E. 2d 857.