Court Opinion

ID: 9665997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:01:54.666441+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:21.969306
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
STEAKLEY, Justice.
Petitioner, Hoyal B. Moore, has filed a Motion for Rehearing urging that we render judgment in his favor against Respondent, Troy C. Vines, for the sum of $32,-251.51, with interest thereon from February 27, 1970, and that this cause be remanded to the trial court solely for the purpose of permitting the determination of the amount of royalties presently held in suspense by Pan American Petroleum Corporation, and for appropriate orders for the investment of these funds during the lifetime of Vines. Petitioner says that “This money [the $32,-251.51] should be paid to him now and not at the time of the death of Troy C. Vines.” The argument is that the life estate of Vines in the royalties paid to and expended by him were forfeited for waste; otherwise, of course, interest on this sum will continue to accrue to Vines as life tenant. See Clyde v. Hamilton, 414 S.W.2d 434 (Tex.1967). There is no suggestion of the existence of statutory authority for forfeiture of a life estate under such circumstances.
It appears to be generally recognized that forfeiture of a life estate, whether of the entire estate or limited to the thing wasted, rests upon specific statutory enactments. 31 C.J.S. Estates § 65(5) (1964); 28 Am. Jur.2d, Estates, § 101; Annotation, 16 A.L.R.3d 1344; Summers, The Law of Oil and Gas, ¶ 36. It has been further said that forfeiture of the estate for life for waste is a drastic sanction which is granted sparingly and then strictly within statutory authority for such forfeiture. Restatement of Property, § 152(d), comment f, at 503 (1936).
Apart from the absence of statutory authority, we are of the view that in any event the conduct of Vines under the circumstances was not so unconscionable as to support a forfeiture of his life estate to the extent sought by Petitioner.
The Motions for Rehearing of Hoyal B. Moore, Petitioner, and of Troy C. Vines, Respondent, are overruled.