Court Opinion

ID: 9776907
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:48:20.421931+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:44.829920
License: Public Domain

DISSENT
DAVIS, Justice.
I dissent. I drew this case and wrote the following opinion, which I now file as my dissent with minor changes.
This is a declaratory judgment suit by ap-pellee, Olympic Petroleum Corporation, against appellants, B. L. Corley and wife, Orilla Betts Corley, to construe and declare an oil, gas and mineral lease to be valid and in full force and effect. The appellants answered and petitioned for a summary judgment, asking the court to declare the oil, gas and mineral lease to have terminated. The case was tried before the court, without a jury, and judgment was entered in favor of appellee. Appellants have perfected their appeal and bring forward five points of error.

History

On August 1, 1960, appellants, as lessors, executed an oil, gas and mineral lease to Charles Stubblefield, lessee, on 140 acres of land situated in three different headright surveys in Cass County, Texas. The lease was assigned to Olympic Petroleum Corporation on July 29, 1963. The lease provides for the payment of $140.00 per year delay rentals, or to begin drilling operations. All delay rentals were paid through August 1, 1963. The lease is an “unless” lease, and merely gives the lessee or the assigns the option to pay the annual delay rentals or begin drilling operations. According to the record, appellee mailed a check by registered letter to the depository, Morris County National Bank of Naples, Texas, on July 25, 1964. The letter and the check was never delivered to the bank by the U. S. mails. There is a mix-up in the testimony that was offered at the trial. A witness for the post office swore that the registered letter that was mailed by appellee was dispatched to the Texarkana Mail Terminal on July 15, 1964. There is no showing that *541the registered letter arrived at the Mail Terminal in Texarkana on July 27, 1964. The registered number is 816,705. The witness from the post office swore that the control guide had five items listed. The second item was Registered No. 815,705, from Houston, Texas. The witness further swore that the registered letter should have reached the bank in Naples, Texas, by 7:00 o’clock a. m. If the registered letter reached the post office in Texarkana on July 27, 1964, it should have been delivered to the Morris County National Bank at Naples, Texas, that same day. Through some negligence on the part of the mails the letter and check was never delivered. This act was through no fault at all on the part of the lessors. The lease contains the following provisions:
“ * * * The payment or tender of rental under this paragraph * * * may be made by the check or draft of Lessee mailed or delivered to the parties entitled thereto or to said bank on or before the date of payment. * * * ”

Opinion

In construing the provisions of the lease it merely provides that the rentals “may” be made by the check or draft of lessee, “mailed” to the parties entitled thereto, or to said bank on or before the date of payment. This provision is merely permissible, not mandatory. The lease does not “expressly provide” for the payment of delay rentals. Mailing the delay rentals is only permissible. The lessee, in truth and in fact, admitted that the mails was not the agent of the lessors, because on August 28, 1964, the attorneys for the lessee issued another check and delivered it to the depository, Morris County National Bank, which check was finally negotiated by the bank on September 15, 1964, a month and a half too late to pay the delay rentals. Thereafter, the lessors returned this money by check to the appel-lee, with the notation that the lease had terminated under its own terms. It seems to be the law in Texas that where delay rentals are paid late, which are occasioned by delay in the mails, the lease terminates. 42 T.J.2d 480 § 222; Appling v. Morrison (CCA 1921), 227 S.W. 708, N.W.H.; Gillespie v. Bobo, 271 F. 641; Weiss v. Claborn (CCA 1920), 219 S.W. 884, err. ref.; Morriss v. First Nat. Bank of Mission (CCA 1952), 249 S.W.2d 269; Thornton Oil & Gas, 1960 Cumulative Supp. § 259; Thuss, 2d Ed., Texas Oil & Gas 110, § 80; Keeler v. Dunbar (5 Cir.1930) 37 F.2d 868; Schell v. Black (CCA 1959), 321 S.W.2d 373, N.W.H.
The appellee takes the position that, by rule of equity, the lease should be declared to be in full force and effect because the delay rentals were mailed in time to reach the depository bank prior to the expiration date. Since the lease terminated under its own terms, there can be no equitable relief. See the above cases cited. 42 T.J.2d 464 § 216; 42 T.J.2d 590 § 265; 42 T.J.2d 617 § 283.
It is not pointed out in the main opinion in this case that the lessors appointed the U. S. mails as their agent. According to the terms of the lease, the lessee could have mailed the check to the lessors or to the depository; or, they could have delivered it personally. If the majority opinion is correct, then a judgment should be rendered in favor of the lessee for the money back that they paid through their attorneys on August 28, 1964. If the U. S. mail was the agent of the lessors, the lessors were not entitled to the money, because it got lost in the mail.
The lease had terminated. I would sustain the points of error.
I would reverse the judgment of the trial court and render the same.