Bounds v. Ohio Oil Co.

106 So. 2d 67, 234 Miss. 277, 9 Oil & Gas Rep. 653, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 487
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 3, 1958
DocketNo. 40890
StatusPublished

This text of 106 So. 2d 67 (Bounds v. Ohio Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bounds v. Ohio Oil Co., 106 So. 2d 67, 234 Miss. 277, 9 Oil & Gas Rep. 653, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 487 (Mich. 1958).

Opinion

Lee, J.

The Ohio Oil Company, a corporation, claiming to be the owner of an oil, gas and mineral lease on certain lands, as described, filed its bill of interpleader for the purpose of determining the proper parties in interest to whom it should pay royalties on account of a producing gas well on said lands. Mrs. Roberta Roberts and others were made defendants. H. C. Bounds and wife, Mrs. Wauline R. Bounds, intervened and filed an answer, denying that the complainant and the named defendants owned any interest whatever in said lands. They made their answer a cross bill and claimed that they owned all of the gas, oil and mineral rights thereunder. A demurrer to the cross bill was sustained and the cross-complainants amended the same and set up substantially the following allegations:

For sometime prior to July 19, 1951, Mrs. Eddie Carnes Sullivan was the owner of both the surface and the minerals in and to the lands in question. She had been married to Kin Sullivan in 1936, and she and her husband lived on the land as their homestead. On July 19, 1951, she executed and delivered to J. N. Roberts a gas, oil and mineral lease of said land, which, in due course, was assigned to Ohio Oil Company, and which is the instrument under which the complainant asserted its rights. Provision 8 thereof was as follows:

■ “The rights of either party hereunder may be assigned in whole or in part, and the provisions hereof shall extend to their heirs, successors and assigns; but no [282]*282change or division in ownership of the land, rentals or royalties, however accomplished, shall operate to enlarge the obligations or diminish the rights of Lessee; and no change or division in snch ownership shall be binding on Lessee until thirty (30) days after Lessee shall have been furnished by registered U. S. mail at Lessee’s principal place of business with a certified copy of recorded instrument or instruments evidencing same. ’ ’

Mrs. Sullivan’s husband did not join in the lease, and subsequently, on April 6, 1953, she was divorced from her husband by a decree of the Chancery Court of Forrest County, Mississippi. Thereafter, on April 18, 1953, she granted, bargained, sold, conveyed and warranted, “subject to the conditions hereinafter recited” the land in question to H. C. Bounds and wife, Mrs. Wauline R. Bounds. The language immediately following the description was: “Insofar as the oil, gas and other minerals are concerned, the Grantor does hereby, for the same consideration above recited, convey and quitclaim unto the grantees herein all of her right, title and interest in and to said oil, gas and other minerals in, on and under said lands, if any; but Grantor does not make any warranty whatsoever in any wise thereunto pertaining.

“This instrument is executed subject to that particular Oil, Gas and Mineral Lease from Mrs. Eddie Carnes Sullivan, et al, sole heir of Robert Carnes, deceased, to J. N. Roberts, dated July 12, 1951 and of record in the office of the Chancery Court of Forrest County, Mississippi in Lease and Deed Record Book 117 at page 23; and also, is executed subject to that particular Oil, Gas and Mineral Lease from Mrs. Eddie Carnes Sullivan, a widow, to J. N. Roberts, dated July 19, 1951 and of record in the office of the Chancery Clerk of Forrest County, Mississippi in Lease and Deed Record Book 117 at pages 33-34. (Emphasis supplied)
“ It is understood and agreed by and between the parties hereto that taxes for the year 1953 will be prorated [283]*283between the Grantor and the Grantees herein, with the Grantor herein paying 4/12ths thereof and the Grantees herein paying 8/12ths thereof; and that the Grantees herein assume, and they will pay, taxes for all subsequent years.”

The amended cross bill charged that the lease, which Mrs. Sullivan delivered to Roberts, was void because the lands constituted homestead property, and her husband did not join in the conveyance; that the gas, oil and mineral lease was void for the additional reason that production was not acquired until June 6, 1956, and that the alleged owners and holders of the lease paid no delay rentals for the years 1953, 1954 and 1955, and that such lease had therefore lapsed; and that the oil company was estopped to claim under the deed from Mrs. Sullivan. There was an offer to do equity as far as bearing the proportionate cost of the well. .

The prayer of the cross bill sought the cancellation of the original lease and all conveyances resting thereon, and that the cross-complainants should be declared to be the legal and rightful owners of all interest in the lands.

The Oil Company interposed a demurrer which set up that there was no equity on the face of the amended cross bill, and that said cross bill and the exhibit thereto showed that the deed which the cross-complainants obtained from Mrs. Sullivan was subject to the gas, oil and mineral leases owned by the cross-defendant Oil' Company, and that the cross-complainants were bound by said leases as a matter of express contract.

The demurrer was sustained; and the cross-complainants having declined, to plead further, the cross bill was finally dismissed. From the decree of dismissal the Bounds appealed.

The position of the appellants is that the lease was void because the land was Mrs. Sullivan’s homestead and her husband did not join in the conveyance. Hence the appellants took the land clear of the lease notwithstand[284]*284ing the above quoted provisions in their deed from Mrs. Sullivan. They further say that, if mistaken in the first contention, nevetheless they are still entitled to prevail because no delay rentals were paid between the time of their acquisition of the surface and the production of gas.

On the contrary, the appellee contends that the appellants took the land subject to the lease and are bound by it; and under the provisions of the lease, appellants became entitled to receive the delay rentals only after they had furnished the appellee with affirmative evidence of their acquisition of the title, and the cross-bill wholly failed to allege that the appellants furnished such evidence.

It is elemental that, on consideration of a demurrer, all facts well pled in the bill must be taken to be true. Likewise if the bill fails to allege any fact which must be proved in order to make out a case, it must be presumed that the fact does not exist.

As early as 1848, this Court, in Banks v. Evans, 10 S. & M. 35, said: “He who comes into equity to get rid of a legal title, which is alleged to overshadow his own, must show clearly the validity of his own title, and the invalidity of his opponent’s. He cannot expect a court of equity to set aside a legal title, upon a doubtful state of case.”

After her divorce on April 6, 1953, Mrs. Sullivan was at liberty to convey her property as she might please. On April 18, 1953, she conveyed the property to the appellants under the conditions stated. The appellants accepted the deed and they were bound by its express terms and conditions. In Wilson v. Gerard, 213 Miss. 177, 56 So. 2d 471, the deed from the Gerards to Wilson contained the provision “Subject to one-half interest in mineral and oil rights as conveyed to Wm. Henderson. ’ ’ The bill had charged that Wm. Henderson was a fictitious person and that the exception was null and void.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
106 So. 2d 67, 234 Miss. 277, 9 Oil & Gas Rep. 653, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bounds-v-ohio-oil-co-miss-1958.