Court Opinion

ID: 9776442
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:35:49.73197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:38.884459
License: Public Domain

OSBORNE, Judge
(dissenting).
In my opinion the court should dismiss this action without reaching the merits because the parties have failed to show that there exists between them an actual controversy which will give right to a proceeding under KRS 418.005, etc., the Declaratory Judgments Act. The question here presented by the plaintiffs whose predecessors in title have executed a mineral lease is what law will be applicable and what will be the rights of the parties concerned if and when the holders of the mineral lease determine to excavate for minerals.1
Before relief will be granted in an action of this nature “the interest of the parties arising out of their relationship to each other and to the subject matter of the controversy must be more than merely general. It must be a substantial, direct and *400legally protectable present interest in the relief sought.” (Emphasis added.) 22 Am. Jur.2d Declaratory Judgments, page 849, § 11. “No proceeding lies under the declaratory judgment act to obtain a judgment which is merely advisory or which merely answers a moot or abstract question. In other words the courts have no jurisdiction to deal with the theoretical problems, academic matters or hypothetical or speculative questions.” 22 Am.Jur.2d 848, § 10.
The record in this case does not disclose that the holder of the mineral right has attempted to or has any present plans to excavate all or any part of the property in question. For this reason, I can not perceive how this court can in an action for declaration of rights completely define the rights of all parties concerned in a controversy that may never develop. This court has previously refused to do so.
In Shearer v. Backer, 207 Ky. 455, 269 S.W. 543, we said:
“After appellants have accepted a warranted title, and are in full and undisputed possession of the land, what may or may not happen to their title or possession is simply a speculative argument that does not now and may never become an actual controversy about rights or duties, and it was not the purpose of the Declaratory Judgment Act to impose upon the courts the burden of answering such abstract and speculative propositions of law simply to satisfy the curiosity or fears of the parties about possible controversies that may or may not arise out of their executed contract.”
Again in Jefferson County ex rel. Coleman v. Chilton, 236 Ky. 614, 33 S.W.2d 601, we said:
“The Declaratory Judgment Act refers to justiciable controversies of a character to be determined by a single decree or supplemental proceedings thereon. Every dispute between lawyers on a subject of law, whether adjective or substantive, is not a justiciable controversy to be settled in a declaratory action. ‘A mere difference of opinion is not an actual controversy,’ within the contemplation of our statute. Axton v. Goodman, 205 Ky. 382, 265 S.W. 806. Cf. Muskrat v. United States, 219 U.S. 346, 31 S.Ct. 250, 55 L.Ed. 246. Nor is a disputed question of law or procedure raised in a pending suit such an actual controversy as comes within the letter, reason, or spirit of the Declaratory Judgment Act.”
There being no present controversy between the parties and none likely to arise until such time as a determination is made to excavate, I would dismiss this action.

. It was testified for the officers of the corporation holding the mineral lease that they had no present plans to excavate at this time and they furthermore had serious doubts as to whether coal existed upon the property in such form that it would be expedient or economical to strip.