Court Opinion

ID: 9680215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 07:26:03.790584+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:26.876223
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Justice, dissenting. Although the various rules of construction relied upon by the majority are designed to give effect to the intention of the parties, it does not seem to me that they accomplish that purpose in this case. The pivotal 1944 deed from the Gibsons to Griffin was obviously not drawn by a lawyer. It is impossible to be certain what was intended by the layman who prepared that deed, but I think the chancellor’s interpretation of it is preferable to that adopted by the majority. The Gibsons then owned half the minerals in the 80-acre tract that was conveyed. They also owned a reversionary interest in the other half of the minerals in the south forty acres, but that interest would not be of any value if oil or gas should be produced in paying quantities during the 15-year term that had been granted to Naert in 1935. In view of that doubtful situation the Gibsons would have been understandably reluctant to give a warranty deed to that mineral interest. That explains why the Gibsons excepted the mineral rights from the warranty clause in their deed to Griffin. The clearest language in the Gibson-Griffin deed, as far as the minerals are concerned, is the following: “. . . except a reservation of an undivided One-Half Interest in all Oil, Gas and Mineral Rights . . . which is reserved by the Grantor herein.” Even for a layman it would have been a simple matter to reserve the other one-half interest in the minerals in the south forty if such a reservation had been intended. Absent such language, I am not convinced that the draftsman of the deed used the other highly ambiguous clauses as a roundabout way of accomplishing that result. Consequently I would affirm the decree in its entirety. Holt, J., joins in this dissent.