Court Opinion

ID: 9545679
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:17:26.180311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:15:20.300087
License: Public Domain

HALLEY, J.
(dissenting). The sole question in this action is whether or not Purcell conveyed to the Thaxtons 6/16 of 1/8 of all the minerals under the land in question, or whether he conveyed 6/16 of all the minerals. In the deed before us, the granting clause provides clearly that the grant- or is only conveying 6/16 of 1/8 of all oil, gas, and other minerals, and the parenthetical clause further says:
“It is understood that the first party owns 1/8 of the minerals in and under the above premises, and this instrument conveys to second parties 6/16 of the 1/8 of the mineral royalty.”
This clause clearly indicated that the grantor only claimed to own 1/8 of the minerals, and that he was conveying to the grantees 6/16 of the 1/8 that he owned. It is plain to me that the grantor had no intention of conveying more than he had, when he said he owned 1/8 of the minerals, and did not mean to convey to the grantees more than he said he owned.
*616I see no ambiguity in this deed, nor is there any evidence of fraud in its execution. The plaintiffs had their lawyer assist in the preparation of the deed. The trial court was not at liberty to consider the evidence surrounding this transaction when the deed itself was not ambiguous, and where there was no evidence of fraud or deceit in the transaction. Parol evidence is not admissible to vary or add to the terms of a deed in the absence of such ambiguity, accident, fraud or mistake.
The majority opinion says that the deed was ambiguous, for the reason that the phrase “mineral royalty” was used. It is clearly apparent to me that the reason the grantor desired to have the parenthetical clause in the deed was to exclude any idea that he was claiming to have more than a 1/8 interest in all the minerals. At no time did Purcell own more than 1/2 of the minerals under this 40 acres. His grantors retained 20 acres of the royalty. To me, it would be very unusual for a grantor who only owned 1/2 of the minerals under a tract of land to use the expression “6/16 of 1/8 mineral royalty” if he intended to convey 6/16 of all the mineral rights. If he had intended to convey 15 acres of what he once owned, he would have said “3/4 of my 1/2” or “3/4 of my 1/16”. It would be the most natural thing for a person under those circumstances, if he did intend to convey 6/16 of all the mineral rights, simply to say “6/16 of all the mineral rights”. If he had not intended to limit it, why did he say, at the very beginning, that he only owned 1/8 of the minerals? Under the interpretation made by the majority opinion, when he said he owned only 1/8 of the minerals, he intended to say that he owned all of the mineral rights —this in the face of the fact that no one at any time has contended that Purcell had all the mineral rights under this 40 acres.
In my opinion, the weight of the evidence sustains the position of Purcell, the holding of the trial court and the majority opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. The evidence showed that at the time the deed was delivered to the Thaxtons, they took a receipt which showed that for their share of the annual rental of $1 an acre, or a total of $40, they received $1.87. In addition, Mrs. Thaxton testified that Mr. Purcell told the Thaxtons and their son, in the presence of Mr. Jennings, that he owned 20 acres of royalty; yet she wrote a letter to Mr. Purcell, signing Mr. Thaxton’s name to it, in which the following statement was included:
“He left the impression that you were about to sell 16 a. to him of your share of the royalty.”
How the Thaxtons could believe that they had 15 acres of the 20 acres Purcell owned, and yet that Purcell would have 16 acres left to sell, is more than I can understand.
The majority opinion takes the position that the attorney in the case was an unbiased witness. The fact remains that he examined the title to the property for the Thaxtons, and his testimony and demeanor on the stand showed his bias in favor of the Thax-tons. He knew that Purcell only had one-half of the royalty in the beginning; and it was the lawyer, not Purcell, who changed the clause that Purcell desired to have included in the deed, which was to clearly indicate that he only had, at the time of executing the deed, a 1/8 interest in the mineral rights under the property. It was the lawyer who put the words “mineral royalty” in the parenthetical clause, which brought about the alleged ambiguity in the deed —not Purcell.
The record clearly reveals that at the time Purcell conveyed this land to the Thaxtons, he did not have more than a 1/8 mineral interest. The fact that he later acquired some of the mineral rights that he had previously conveyed away before he deeded the property to the Thaxtons, does not mean the doctrine of after-acquired title should be applied to the interest of the *617Thaxtons, because there is nothing in the instrument itself to show that he intended to convey any such interest to them. The undisputed fact remains that Purcell would not and did not sign a deed which said the Thaxtons’ interest would be 15 acres. He knew he did not have 15 acres and was not deeding that many acres.
The majority opinion is wrong, first, in holding that the deed is ambiguous, and, second, it is against the weight of the evidence when the entire record is considered. I am forced to dissent.