Fort Smith Gas Co. v. Gean

55 S.W.2d 63, 186 Ark. 573, 1932 Ark. LEXIS 385
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 28, 1932
Docket4-2748
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 55 S.W.2d 63 (Fort Smith Gas Co. v. Gean) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fort Smith Gas Co. v. Gean, 55 S.W.2d 63, 186 Ark. 573, 1932 Ark. LEXIS 385 (Ark. 1932).

Opinion

Butler, J.

On the 12th day of July, 1916, John Emrich and Katie E. Emrich conveyed to the appellant’s predecessor in title a right-of-way across 240 acres of land to be used for the laying and maintenance of pipe lines for the transportation of oil and gas, and the privilege of erecting and maintaining telegraph and telephone lines, if necessary. Reservation was made by the grantors for the use of the premises, except for the purposes specified in the grant, that they might recover damages arising to the crops and fences if the same were injured by the grantees in the exercise of the easement. The consideration named in the deed for the grant of the right-of-way was tlie sum of $1 “and tlie further consideration of all gas used by grantors for domestic use free of charge, to be paid when such grant shall be used or occupied. ’ ’

After the execution of the conveyance the way for a pipe line was located and laid across the property of the grantors, some two or three hundred feet distant from a residence then occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Emrich. Em-rich made connection with the pipe line, and laid a pipe from it to his home, and he and Mrs. Emrich nsed the gas for domestic purposes until they died some years later. After they died the residence was in charge of a caretaker for a time, who only used the basement. The lands were devised to a granddaughter, who, in August, 1931, conveyed five acres out of the tract, and on which the Emrich residence was located, to the appellees, no part of which was on the rig’ht-of-way. Shortly after this, a gas meter was installed by the appellants and a charge made for the use of the gas as was made to other customers in the city of Fort Smith. This resulted in the bringing of this action by the appellees to restrain the appellants from discontinuing the furnishing of natural gas for domestic purposes to the appellees in the Emrich dwelling, and for a mandatory injunction requiring them to furnish said gas free of charge.

The chancellor heard the case on the pleadings and testimony and found that the right to the use of gas free of charge was a covenant running with the land and became annexed and appurtenant' to the dwelling house on the tract of land purchased by the appellees, and therefore they were entitled under their deed to the use of gas free of charge. The appellants seek a reversal of the decree on three grounds: first, that there was no covenant in the conveyance by Emrich of the right-of-way running with the land; second, that there could be no specific performance of the contract; and, third, that the contract is void as against public policy. We need consider only the first contention as our view of that is determinative of this litigation.

It is our opinion that the stipulation in the conveyance quoted, supra, was personal to the‘grantors and not a covenant real as is insisted hy the appellees. We have examined with care all of the authorities cited in the splendid brief of counsel for the appellees which he contends support the view that the use of gas for domestic purposes mentioned in the conveyance of the right-of-way was a covenant running with the land and appurtenant to the Emrich residence. To sustain the view that a covenant to furnish gas is one to run with the land, counsel cite Indiana Natural Gas Co. v. Harper, 50 Ind. App. 555, 98 N. E. 743; Harper v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 76 W. Va. 207, 84 S. E. 770, L. R. A. 1915E 570; Indiana Natural Gas Co. v. Hinton, 159 Ind. 398, 64 N. E. 224; and Thornton on Oil & Gas, (2d ed.) §§ 92 and 93 (now § 99, vol. 1, 4th ed.). An examination of these cases shows that all of them arose out of contract for lease of land for the exploration or production of oil and gas, and the furnishing of gas free of charge was a part of the rent issuing out of the demised premises.

The cases of Johnson v. American Gas Co., 8 Ohio App. 124, and Anderson v. Empire Natural Gas Co., 116 Kan. 501, 227 Pac. 347, 41 A. L. R. 253, cited by appellees, appear to he more nearly in point, but in the Johnson case the contract under consideration was one where the gas company was granted an easement over a certain farm in consideration of the sum of $1 and the furnishing of free gas in the residence of the grantor. The court in discussing the consideration, said: “Beyond question, the real consideration was the gas to he furnished * * * and this ‘in the residence of John McLandsborough,’ not to or for John McLandsborough, hut in the residence; therefore, the name ‘John McLandsborough’ is descriptive of the residence in which the gas was to be furnished.”

In the Alderson case, supra, the grant was the right of laying a gas pipe across the real estate of the grantor, and as part of the consideration therefor the grantee agreed to furnish gas “for use on the premises” at a certain rate. Construing the language of the contract, the court said: ’“The only reasonable construction of the contract is that gas was to be furnished on the premises leased for use in the buildings thereon by whoever might be the owner thereof at any time in the future, so long as the land is occupied by the pipe lines of the defendant.”

Murphy v. Kerr, 5 Fed. (2d) 908, 41 A. L. R. 1359, cited by the appellees, was a case where a stipulation in a deed to furnish water on the tract of land conveyed was held to be a covenant running with the land, but the tract conveyed was without water and without means of obtaining it save in the mode existing at the time of the conveyance as mentioned in the deed. At the time the land was conveyed to the g’rantee, water was being conveyed into a reservoir then established on the land through pipes already laid connecting the reservoir with water on another parcel of land owned by the grantor. Here the easement was in esse at the time of the grant, and was not only beneficial, but essential to the use of the land conveyed. So, in the case of Hess v. Kennedy, a New Jersey case, 69 N. J. Eq. 138, 61 Atl. 464, where a deed conveyed a certain lot on which there was a residence with water fixtures and a drain pipe crossing another parcel of land belonging to the grantor and emptying into a public sewer, and where the deed contained no specific mention of the drain but the usual clause conveying “ways, waters, privileges, with the appurtenances, etc,” it was held that the drain then existing was an easement appurtenant to the lot conveyed and passed to the grantee and those holding under him because it was in being at the time of the grant and necessary for the enjoyment of 'the land conveyed.

In Southern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Spring Valley Water Co., 173 Cal. 291, 159 Pac. 865, L. R. A. 1917E 680, relied on by appellee, the question involved was whether the language of the instrument constituted an agreement by the water company to furnish water to the railroad company, and, if so, whether an enforcement of it would be opposed to public policy. The grant of the easement was “in consideration of the construction and maintenance of a highway at Newark Station and the free nse of water therefrom for fire and station and all other railroad purposes.” The court merely held that the stipulation contained such an agreement, and that the same was not contrary to public policy.

The facts in Toothe v. Bryce, 50 N. J. Eq. 589, 25 Atl. 182, and the principle involved are similar to the cases of Murphy v. Kerr and Hess v. Kennedy, supra. In none of these cases is the covenant like that in the case at bar. The two cases most nearly approaching this, as has been said, are Johnson v. American Gas Co.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

James Fox v. Teresa and Lester Alexander
2023 Ark. App. 247 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2023)
Bernard Court, LLC v. Walmart, Inc.
2020 Ark. App. 563 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2020)
Acuna v. Watkins
423 S.W.3d 670 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2012)
Rooke v. Spickelmier
314 S.W.3d 718 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 2009)
Winningham v. Harris
981 S.W.2d 540 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1998)
Wilson v. Brown
897 S.W.2d 546 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1995)
Wallner v. Johnson
730 S.W.2d 253 (Court of Appeals of Arkansas, 1987)
Stevenson v. Marques
407 S.W.2d 391 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1966)
Rose Lawn Cemetery Assoc., Inc. v. Scott
317 S.W.2d 265 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1958)
Nordin v. May
188 F.2d 411 (Eighth Circuit, 1951)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 S.W.2d 63, 186 Ark. 573, 1932 Ark. LEXIS 385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fort-smith-gas-co-v-gean-ark-1932.