Court Opinion

ID: 9666411
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 01:14:08.788046+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:28.588557
License: Public Domain

JOHN CAYCE, Chief Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. As a matter of law, the two 1960 deeds at issue reserved a fixed fractional l/16th non-participating royalty interest. The appellee’s contention to the contrary requires us to ignore numerous rules of contract construction, to give no effect to the “being equal to” language in the deeds, and to imply from the “not less than” phrase in the deeds a reservation of interest in favor of the grantor that is more than the plain language of the deeds allows. I would, therefore, grant appellants’ motions for rehearing, reverse the trial court’s partial summary judgment, and render judgment that appellee take nothing on her claims against appellants.