Masterson v. Gulf Oil Corporation

301 S.W.2d 486, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 1279, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1748
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 18, 1957
Docket13087
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 301 S.W.2d 486 (Masterson v. Gulf Oil Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Masterson v. Gulf Oil Corporation, 301 S.W.2d 486, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 1279, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1748 (Tex. Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

*487 GANNON, Justice.

On November 19, 1929, the Independent Executors of Branch T. Master-son, Deceased, conveyed to George H. Bingham by general warranty deed certain lands in Brazoria County, Texas. However, the deed contained the following exception and reservation:

“It being expressly agreed and understood, however, that there is reserved by the Grantors herein and excepted from this conveyance, an undivided one-sixteenth (¾6) royalty interest of any oil, gas or minerals that may hereafter be produced on said land and one-half (⅛) of any bonus or rental paid in lieu of such royalty interest; ⅜ *

On January 25, 1949, the grantee, George H. Bingham, having died intestate his administrator, J. H. Tigner, executed an oil and gas lease on the subject land to Gulf Oil Corporation. The lease is in the usual form and for a primary term of five years. It provided for annual delay rentals of $2,-554.80. Gulf Oil Corporation paid a $12,-774 cash bonus for the execution of the lease, and has subsequently paid annual delay rentals totaling $8,934.30. The cash bonus and all delay rentals have been paid to Bingham’s administrator. No part of said cash bonus or of said delay rentals has been paid to Masterson’s executor, his heirs or devisees. The Mastersons claim they are entitled to one-half of all bonus and delay rentals paid under the lease, and seek a money judgment therefor.

With all interested parties before it, the trial court ruled that the foregoing reservation did not entitle the Mastersons to any part of the cash bonus or delay rental involved and denied recovery therefor. The Mastersons appeal, claiming that under the reservation they are entitled to receive one-half of the cash bonus paid for the execution of the lease as well as one-half of all delay rentals paid thereunder.

In support of their position, the Master-sons say that when effect is given to the plain unambiguous language of the reservation it is clear that they are entitled to one-half of the ordinary cash bonus and ordinary delay rentals involved. Their position is stated variously, as follows: Bonus, rental and royalty are, in a sense, alternative payments and each is paid instead of or in place of the other. Cash bonus and delay rental payments are by their “very nature” in lieu of royalty which would be required in the event of production. The grantors in the deed of November 19, 1929, simply reserved one-half of all money payments made for the exclusive right to explore or utilize the mineral estate. This is true because bonuses and rentals came into existence as substitutes for or as payments in lieu of royalties, having evolved to replace what would otherwise be immediate and continuous drilling obligations. Differently put, the Mastersons argue that ordinary cash bonus and delay rentals paid for and under an oil lease are actually and in essence royalty, so that as a matter of law such payments necessarily represent royalty and are paid in lieu or in place thereof. They say: “It seems * * * inescapable that * * * in every ordinary oil and gas lease the bonus paid is * * * a payment in lieu of royalty; [that] rental paid is * * * payment made in lieu of royalty; [and] that when royalty is paid such payment is in lieu of any further need either for bonus payment or rental payment so long as the royalty payment continues.”

We are not impressed with these contentions. They prove too much. Given logical effect they would establish in the ownership of a mere royalty interest ipso facto a right to a proportionate share of all ordinary bonus and delay rents. Nor would it be necessary to sustain such right that there be express provision for a proportionate share of bonus and rental “paid in lieu of such royalty interest.” The right would follow in law as appurtenant to the royalty. Our decisions are to the contrary. A royalty interest as distinguished from a mineral interest is not entitled to *488 share in bonus or rental, but only in production, actual or constructive. State National Bank of Corpus Christi v. Morgan, 135 Tex. 509, 143 S.W.2d 757; Schlittler v. Smith, 128 Tex. 628, 101 S.W.2d 543.

The Mastersons construe their deed just as if, in respect to the minerals, they had reserved a one-half interest therein though irrevocably delegating and appointing their grantee, his executors, administrators and assigns, executive agent of the leasing power which would otherwise remain in the ownership of the minerals. In our opinion, this is a strained and unnatural construction, and in the face of the clear intent of the instrument which we consider to be plain and unambiguous.

The words “Royalty,” “Bonus,” and “Rentals,” each and all have a separate, distinct and well established meaning in the oil and gas business. See Schlittler v. Smith, 128 Tex. 628, 101 S.W.2d 543, 544, where it was said, “The words ‘royalty,’ ‘bonus,’ and ‘rentals’ have a well-understood meaning in the oil and gas business. * * * it is well settled that a grantor may reserve minerals or mineral rights and he may also reserve royalties, bonuses, and rentals, either one, more or all.” In that case the reservation was of royalty rights. The court said, “It is obvious, it seems to us, that this does not include a reservation of bonuses or rentals, but only of an interest in oil, gas, or minerals paid, received, or realized as ‘royalty’ under any lease existing on the land at the time of the reservation, or thereafter executed by the grantee, his heirs or assigns.”

Under the reservation here involved, the grantors excepted from the conveyance a one-sixteenth royalty interest, and one-half of any bonus or rental paid in lieu or in place of that royalty interest. Certainly there is no difficulty in determining the meaning of the reservation of the one-sixteenth royalty interest. That interest entitled the owner to a one-sixteenth share of the minerals produced from the land, or the proceeds thereof. Clearly, a one-sixteenth royalty interest standing alone is nonparticipating in nature, and does not entitle the owner to any share of ordinary cash or other bonuses, or of delay rentals. So, the case turns on the meaning of the words “½ of any bonus or rental paid in lieu of such royalty interest.” (Emphasis supplied.) We think the presence in the quoted phrase of the word “such” is important. The parties plainly stipulated that the bonus or rental, a portion of which the grantors in the subject deed reserved, must be a bonus or a rental paid in place or in lieu of the one-sixteenth nonparticipating royalty interest. It is clear from the phrase that the bonus or rental in which the grantors are to participate must be bonus or rental paid in lieu of something, and not only that but it must be bonus or rental paid in lieu of a particular something, specifically in lieu of “such” “⅛eth royalty interest.” If, as the Mastersons contend, they are entitled to a one-half interest in any and all bonus or rental paid, then the phrase “in lieu of such royalty interest” becomes meaningless as mere surplusage in its entirety.

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Bluebook (online)
301 S.W.2d 486, 7 Oil & Gas Rep. 1279, 1957 Tex. App. LEXIS 1748, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/masterson-v-gulf-oil-corporation-texapp-1957.