36 Ind. App. 503 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1905
The appellee brought suit to quiet his title to 100 acres of land; the complaint being in the short form ordinarily adopted in such cases. The appellant answered by general denial. The only matter presented here relates to the question whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain the finding of the court in favor of the appellee. The appellee being the owner of the tract here involved, .and his wife being the owner of a certain other tract of fifty acres,
It is admitted on behalf of the appellant that the evidence sufficiently showed the title of the appellee, and that the appellant was claiming an interest in the land under the oil and gas contract; but it is contended that the evidence does not sufficiently show that such claim of interest was without right and unfounded. No well was made, and there was no attempt to develop the land for oil or gas, and the party of the second part or the appellant never entered on the land or took possession of it. Nothing was paid at the execution of the contract. The appellee received 'from the appellant the first payment of money under the contract on or about April 5, 1900, one year and three months after its date, the sum then paid being $75, the amount stipulated to be paid as “yearly rental” for further delay after the expiration of three months without the drilling of a well. The next payment was made on or before April 5, 1901. This payment was made and accepted to pay up to July 1, 1901, the amount of the payment being $92.50, the rent thereafter to be paid annually from the 1st of July. No other money was ever paid to the appellee or to any one on his behalf or on his wife’s behalf, under this contract. No tender of payment to him or his wife, under the contract, was made on or about July 1, 1902; and no such payments were deposited in the Marion Bank to the appellee’s credit on or before that date. When receiving the payment on or about April 5, 1900, the appellee on behalf of himself and his wife made demand of the appellant for the development of the land. Like demand was made when the payment was made on or about April 5, 1901. The appellee, who was the only witness on the trial, was asked on cross-examination: “Were yon tendered any money after that at all by the defendant, or their agent, after you received
The oil and gas contract purported in its beginning to be an absolute grant of all such substances in the land, with the exclusive right to enter upon the land at all times for the purpose of operating therefor, no period 'of time being prescribed for the continuance of the rights so granted. It was then provided that this grant was made upon the terms which thereafter followed. The word “terms” in such connection was broad enough in meaning to include considerations or conditions. One of the terms was that the grantees agreed to drill a well within three months from January 5, 1899, or thereafter to pay the grantors for further delay a certain amount in money annually, “a yearly rental * * * until said well is drilled.” Such yearly payments “when due” were to be deposited in a certain bank; but if the grantee should refuse to make such deposits or to pay the grantors at places designated the rental “when due,” such refusal was to be construed by both parties as the act of the grantee for the purpose of surrendering the rights granted; and in default of the rental payments the contract was to be null and void, without further notice from the grantee. The payment of rentals yearly was put as an alternative equivalent to the drilling of a well; but it was in effect provided that the grantee might surrender the grant at his own choice by his failure to pay the rental when due, and that in case of failure to pay when due, the grant, thereupon, without other notice from the grantee than such failure, should be null and void; and it was further provided that the grantee “at any time” might reconvey and thereby might render the grant void.
Judgment affirmed.