Court Opinion

ID: 9534487
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:40:16.842617+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:30:53.899699
License: Public Domain

HARNSBERGER, Justice
(dissenting).
There is no question but that at the time the subject conveyance was executed Roush was the sole owner of the property, including its minerals with the exception of coal.
There is no question but that Mrs. Bur-nell had nothing more than a homestead right in that property as the wife of Roush at the time the subject conveyance was made.
There is no question but that this right of homestead might be lost through divorce or by death.
There is no question but that during his marriage to Mrs. Burnell Roush could not alienate the property- or any part thereof without Mrs. Burnell, having;..joined to release her then homestead right.
What then motivated Mrs. Burnell to release this valuable homestead right? What was the intention of the parties at the time the conveyance was executed? These answers are to be found within the four corners of that instrument alone.
At the time of the execution of the conveyance, it was not known whether the retained interest in minerals was of any value at all, yet Mrs. Burnell gave up a valuable right in order to obtain a share in them.
Although Mrs. Burnell had no legal title to the property, the parties elected to name her as a grantor as well as having her release her homestead interest in the property. Furthermore, the clause excepting from the operation of the deed or reserving therefrom a one-half interest in the minerals, other than coal, recognized Mrs. Bur-nell as a grantor in two separate places, first by expressly naming her as such and second by using the word “grantors” when providing for the retention of a one-half interest in the minerals other than coal. These wordings in the deed clearly indicate that it was the understanding and intention of the parties, at the time Mrs. Burnell released her valuable homestead right, that she was to have in exchange therefor a share of that which was excluded from the conveyance. In the absence of other specification, the portion of mineral right retained must be taken to be a share equal to that of her then husband. When divorce terminated the marriage, her share became entirely separate from that of her former husband and thereafter continued to be her sole and separate property.
*842The province of courts is to ensure that the lawful intentions of contracting parties, respecting disposition of their properties and rights, be carried out, irrespective of inadequacies in their use of words or the means they use in attempts to accomplish their purpose. The reasonings of so-called precedents which attach meanings to their words and expressions in documents, which in all probability were never intended, understood, or possibly even thought of by them, defeat the fundamental objective of the judicial purpose which must always be to seek out, wherever possible, the true intention of the contracting parties and to give force and effect to the accomplishment of their intentions so long as they are found to be not unlawful or illegal.
The judgment of the lower court should be reversed and title to one-half of the retained interest in the minerals within the lands should be quieted.