Moffett v. Parmar Sand, Inc.

36 Pa. D. & C.2d 774, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 37
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County
DecidedOctober 20, 1964
Docketno. 1
StatusPublished

This text of 36 Pa. D. & C.2d 774 (Moffett v. Parmar Sand, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Mercer County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moffett v. Parmar Sand, Inc., 36 Pa. D. & C.2d 774, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 37 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1964).

Opinion

McKay, J.,

Plaintiffs, husband and wife, owners as tenants by the entireties of 200 acres of land in South Pymatuning Township,1 have brought this action in equity to obtain the cancellation of a contract between them and defendant whereby defendant was given the right to remove sand2 and gravel and other similar material from their land.3

[776]*776The background of the entering into the agreement is as follows: Defendant had set up a substantial amount of equipment on nearby land for the removal of sand and gravel and held six leases from the various owners, enough to last them in their operations for a considerable time. The nearest piece so leased was about two miles south of plaintiffs’ land. Defendant’s purpose in acquiring the rights granted by the lease with plaintiffs was to have reserve material available in case they exhausted the material in their other leaseholds. Also, a witness for defendant testified that he had made test borings on the tract and had found that the sand was finer there than in the other six tracts and more desirable for certain purposes.

Plaintiffs conduct a farm on the 200 acres and ex[777]*777pected to continue to operate the farm for at least some time. This is the reason that they provided that for the first year, only the pasture area would be worked and that thereafter the parties would agree on the particular portion to be worked.

At the time the complaint was filed, January 21, 1963, defendant had not conducted any operations on plaintiffs’ land whatever. In February, 1962, as a part of the construction of the Shenango River Reservoir north of Sharpsville, the United States Government condemned the bulk of the land which the defendant had leased on the six pieces above referred to, as well as some of its equipment, as a result of which it was unprofitable for defendant to continue any operations, at least in that vicinity. With the cooperation and consent of the United States District Attorney it sold all its equipment and went out of business.

The present issue was brought to a head on May 28, [778]*7781963, when the attorney for plaintiffs wrote to the attorney for defendant, stating that since defendant had not removed any sand or gravel, it had broken its contract, and that plaintiffs therefore rescinded and cancelled the agreement,4 that plaintiffs exercised their right of reentry; that defendant should stay off the premises and that unless plaintiffs heard from defendant to the contrary within 10 days, they would assume that defendant agreed to “this rescission and cancellation.”

The attorney for defendant promptly replied by letter of June 3rd that it was unable to develop plaintiffs’ property because of the government condemnation; that it did not recognize the cancellation; that it had an interest in plaintiffs’ property growing out of the aforesaid contract, and that if the government condemned plaintiffs’ property as a part of the reservoir project, as was then contemplated, it would claim damages for its proportionate interest in the 200 acres.

After further rebuttal and surrebuttal by correspondence, the present suit was instituted, the pleadings reflecting the above facts, including the correspondence.

At the trial it was stipulated that of the 200 acres owned by plaintiffs, 120 are within the basic, ultimate, plan of the reservoir, that is, are expected to be condemned by the government, but that they have not as yet been actually condemned.

It is the position of plaintiffs that the lease dated March 30, 1961, constituted a contract whereby defendant bound itself to remove sand and gravel from the premises at the rate of at least 20 acres per year; that there was an implied agreement to proceed with due diligence to comply with that obligation; and that by failing to do so, and especially by notifying plain[779]*779tiffs that it had gone out of business, it had breached its contract, whereby the rescission and cancellation of the contract should now be decreed by the court.

Defendant contends that plaintiffs’ remedy, if any, is at law rather than in equity; that the lease imposed no obligation upon it, defendant, to remove the sand and gravel at any particular time during the term, 10 years, of the agreement and its renewal, an additional 10 years; that by the lease, defendant acquired an estate in fee simple in the 200 acres for the period of the lease without obligation to extract any sand or gravel from it; and that even if it had any obligation to remove the material, it was impossible for it to perform such obligation because of the government condemnation of a substantial part of the land leased by defendant in the area, as well as the equipment of defendant; and that defendant had had to shut its plant down in February of 1962.

In addition to the facts which we have heretofore set forth5 and which, in our opinion, are sufficient to determine the controversy, we make the following findings of fact at the specific request of the parties.

1. Since the execution of the agreement, plaintiffs have not transferred any interest in the said 200 acres.

2. The correspondence leading up to the action was between attorneys for the respective parties, but said attorneys had full authority to represent their clients therein.

3. Defendant wound up its business and finally terminated all of its activities on March 1, 1962.

4. Prior to February 14, 1962, defendant was engaged in the business of extracting sand and gravel from 4 of the 6 tracts for which it held leases and thereafter of processing the same for concrete and blacktop materials. Defendant’s processing plant con[780]*780sisted of raw material beds, sand classifiers, dehydraters, conveyor belts, presses and screens.

5. The United States condemned the six tracts on February 14, 1962.

6. Defendant’s processing plant was located upon land not condemned by the United States.

7. Defendant has dismantled its plant, sold the company, ceased its operation, wound up its business, and is in fact out of business.

8. Plaintiffs did not during 1963 demand of defendant that it come on its land and extract any sand, gravel or allied material from the 200 acre tract.

9. When defendant executed its agreement with plaintiffs, defendant anticipated enlarging its operation as time went on, and it needed plaintiffs’ tract covered by said agreement for reserve materials.

10. Plaintiffs never demanded that defendant agree to any specific 20 acre tract from which material was to be removed for the year 1962 or at any subsequent time.

The other requested findings of fact of the respective parties are refused, either because they have already been incorporated in our preliminary summary of facts, because they are not established by the evidence, or because they are irrelevant and immaterial to the issues in the case.

Discussion

One of the points raised by defendant is that equity does not have jurisdiction in that plaintiffs have an adequate remedy at law. This question was raised belatedly, no preliminary objection having been pressed on that ground. Accordingly, it has been waived: Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1509 (c).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 Pa. D. & C.2d 774, 1964 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 37, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moffett-v-parmar-sand-inc-pactcomplmercer-1964.