Perry v. Acme Oil Co.

88 N.E. 859, 44 Ind. App. 207, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 155
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 25, 1909
DocketNo. 5,381
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 88 N.E. 859 (Perry v. Acme Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Perry v. Acme Oil Co., 88 N.E. 859, 44 Ind. App. 207, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 155 (Ind. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

Watson, J.

This was an action brought by the appellee against appellants, to recover the value of certain oil well fixtures and machinery alleged to have been converted by appellants to their own use.

Appellant King Oil Company filed a general denial to the complaint. Appellant Perry answered in two paragraphs: (1) General denial: (2) affirmative matter in avoidance of the contract. The issues were made upon the complaint and separate general denials by each of the appellants. The cause was tried before a jury. A verdict for appellee was returned in the sum of $800. Each appellant moved for a new trial, but the motions were overruled and judgment rendered on the verdict.

The only assignments discussed by appellants in their brief are: (1) Sustaining the demurrer to appellant Perry’s second paragraph of answer; (2) the refusal by the court to give instructions two and seven, requested by Perry.

1. The other assignments of error are therefore deemed to be waived. Hamilton v. Hanneman (1898), 20 Ind. App. 16; Hoover v. Weesner (1897), 147 Ind. 510; Ewbank’s Manual, §188.

The complaint is in one paragraph, and alleges the corporate existence of the appellee and the appellant King Oil [209]*209Company under the laws of the State of Indiana; that on September 26, 1899, William M. Perry and wife executed and delivered to the appellee an oil and gas lease and contract, whereby the Perrys granted to appellee 100 acres in Wells county, Indiana, for the purpose of drilling and operating for gas and oil, with full right to enter thereon and erect and maintain necessary buildings; that, in pursuance of said contract, appellee entered upon said land and took possession thereof for the purpose before set out, and drilled and completed two wells thereon, and equipped said wells with casings and drivepipe, to the vahre of $928.30, and that appellants took possession of said wells, casing, drivepipe and other materials, and wrongfully and unlawfully converted them to their own use.

To this complaint appellants filed separate demurrers, but no rulings were had thereon. Appellant King Oil Company then filed its separate answer in general denial, and William M. Perry filed his separate answer in two paragraphs: (1) General denial; (2) admitting that he and his wife executed said contract as set out in the complaint, and further averring that appellee submitted a blank printed form of contract for him and his wife to execute. Said contract was, in part, as follows:

“The second party shall have the right, free of charge, to use sufficient gas, oil and water to run all machinery for operating said well, also the right to remove all property at any time. * * ° It is further agreed by second party that when it fails to operate any one well for a period of sixty days, or to pay first party $1 per day from the time it fails to operate said well, the ten acres on which said well is located shall be canceled, and returned to first party. Second party shall have the right to remove its machinery from said ten acres.”

The answer further alleges that appellee, on December 12, 1902, ceased to operate said two wells, wholly abandoned the premises, and removed therefrom all of its machinery and [210]*210so remained therefrom thereafter; that on April 15, 1903, he took possession of said wells, easing and drivepipe, and employed his codefendant to operate the wells;' that he did not appropriate to his own use any machinery belonging to the appellee, but only the property which was attached to and formed part of the real estate, and which could not be removed therefrom without damage.

To this second paragraph of answer appellee filed a demurrer, which was sustained by the trial court, and proper exceptions reserved as to the ruling thereon.

2. Under his answer of general denial appellant Perry could have shown all the facts set out in his second paragraph of answer tending to defeat appellee’s claim to the property. Ford v. Griffin (1885), 100 Ind. 85, 87; Swope v. Paul (1892), 4 Ind. App. 463, and cases cited; Nowlin v. State, ex rel. (1903), 30 Ind. App. 277.

3. It was not reversible error, therefore, to sustain the demurrer to the second paragraph of answer. Wickwire v. Town of Angola (1892), 4 Ind. App. 253; Kelley v. Kelley (1894), 8 Ind. App. 606; Crum v. Yundt (1895), 12 Ind. App. 308; Board, etc., v. State, ex rel. (1897), 148 Ind. 675.

The terms of the lease, pertinent and- necessary to the determination of the questions here involved, we have set out verbatim, in the statement of the complaint.

4. Appellee contends that the part of the contract before quoted, providing for cancelation of the lease in the event of failure to operate the wells for sixty days or pay $1 per day from the time of such failure, is unenforceable, because of uncertainty in the description of the tracts to be released.

It may well be, under the authorities cited by appellee, that a suit to quiet title to the ten-acre tracts would not lie, because of uncertainty in the description. But the case at bar is not one of that kind, It is an action for conversion of personal property.

[211]*211By the terms of the lease appellee covenanted to surrender the ten-acre tract upon which any well was located upon failure for sixty days to operate said well, or to pay $1 per day from the time of such failure to operate. Within limits, this gave appellee the power to select the ten acres which said well would be deemed to hold.

In the ease of Jones v. Mount (1906), 166 Ind. 570, the court said: “It is obvious that such a case as this does not fall within the principle of that class of cases in which it is adjudged that nothing passes by the deed where the terms are so uncertain that the intention of the parties cannot be ascertained. It will be observed that the contract contains a covenant upon the part of the grantee to surrender. This, within limits, gave the grantee the power of selection, and the mere fact that the land which he might elect to re-convey was originally uncertain does not prevent an enforcement of the undertaking according to its terms. The principle here announced was exhaustively considered upon the authorities in Smith v. Furbish [1894], 68 N. H. 123, 44 Atl. 398, 47 L. R. A. 226; Gardner v. Webster [1888], 64 N. H. 520, 15 Atl. 144; Dull v. Blum [1887], 68 Tex. 299, 4 S. W. 489; Nye v. Moody [1888], 70 Tex. 434, 8 S. W. 606; Dohoney v. Womack [1892], 1 Tex. Civ. App. 354, 19 S. W. 883, 20 S. W. 950; Waters v. Bew [1894], 52 N. J. Eq. 787, 29 Atl. 590; Lane v. Allen [1896], 162 Ill. 426, 44 N. E. 831; 1 Jones, Real Property Conveyancing, §334. There is no more of legal uncertainty in such a matter as this than there is in the case of a way of necessity, where the reservation is implied as resting on the presumed intention of the parties.”

Therefore, since appellee had the power to select the particular tract to reconvey, it cannot be heard to say that the clause is unenforceable because of uncertainty in the description.

[212]*2125. [211]

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Bluebook (online)
88 N.E. 859, 44 Ind. App. 207, 1909 Ind. App. LEXIS 155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perry-v-acme-oil-co-indctapp-1909.