Scarmardo v. Potter

613 S.W.2d 756, 69 Oil & Gas Rep. 523, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3242
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 4, 1981
DocketB2491
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 613 S.W.2d 756 (Scarmardo v. Potter) 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
Scarmardo v. Potter, 613 S.W.2d 756, 69 Oil & Gas Rep. 523, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3242 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinions

MURPHY, Justice.

Pete R. Scarmardo and Amalgamated Bonanza Petroleum, LTD. appeal from a judgment entered in favor of Anne L. Potter, Jordan Engineering Inc., and its assignees. In controversy, is the ownership of an undivided one-eighth mineral interest in two tracts of land located in Brazos County. Reversed and rendered.

The parties stipulated the following facts and issues. On May 27, 1957, Herman E. Frieling, et al. (Frieling), being the fee simple owners of the two tracts of land involved in this appeal, conveyed by warranty deed such property to E. F. Bond (Bond), reserving an undivided one-half mineral interest. On April 30,1958, Bond delivered a warranty deed conveying the land to [757]*757George E. Potter and his wife, Anne L. Potter (Potter). The deed into Potter reserved the one-half mineral interest previously retained by Frieling. On January 8, 1959 Potter and wife delivered a warranty deed conveying the lands to Pete R. Scar-mardo (Scarmardo) one of the appellants herein and such deed contained the following language:

“Being the same two tracts of land conveyed by E. F. Bond to George E. Potter, et ux, by deed dated April 20th, 1958, and recorded in Volume 188, page 693, of the Deed Records of Brazos County, Texas.”

The deed also contained the following mineral interest reservation clause:

“Grantors retain an undivided ⅛⅛ interest in and to all the oil, gas and other minerals in and under above described tract of land...”

The deed made no exception to the one-half mineral interest previously reserved by Frieling. Scarmardo, on February 20, 1962, conveyed the property by warranty deed to G. M. Easterling and wife (Easterling). The deed contained a description of the land as conveyed and also the following provisions:

“Grantors retained an undivided ⅛⅛ interest in and to all the oil, gas and other minerals...
There is also reserved and excepted from this conveyance an undivided one-half (½) of all the oil, gas and other minerals ... as retained in deed from Herman E. Frieling et al to E. F. Bond dated May 27, 1957...”

There have been several conveyances of the above described property in the chain of title since the conveyance from Scarmardo to Easterling. All such subsequent deeds have reserved from each particular conveyance both the one-eighth mineral interest retained by Potter and the one-half mineral interest retained by Frieling. None of such subsequent grantees claim an interest in the mineral interest involved.

On September 16, 1977 Mrs. Potter, now a widow, executed an Oil, Gas, and Mineral Lease, leasing to Jordan Engineering, Inc. (Jordan) “one-eighth (⅛) of all oil and gas minerals retained by George Potter in the Deed recorded January 8, 1959.” Thereafter, Jordan made various assignments of its rights under the lease. These assignees were all joined in this suit as named Counter-Defendants. On April 29, 1978 Scar-mardo executed an Oil, Gas and Mineral lease, leasing to Amalgamated Bonanza Petroleum, Ltd. (Bonanza) “a one-eighth (Vs) undivided mineral interest in [the property] conveyed by Pete R. Scarmardo to G. M. Easterling”.

At trial, both sides claimed title to the undivided one-eighth mineral interest, reserved by Potter, and specifically sought the following relief: Plaintiffs, Appellees herein, prayed for judgment for title and possession of the mineral interest in question and for orders removing any cloud to Plaintiff’s title. The Defendants, Appellants herein, filed a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment declaring the reservation of the undivided one-eighth mineral interest by Potter in their warranty deed to Scarmardo void, declaring the interest of Jordan and its assignees in said one-eighth undivided interest void and declaring valid and quieting title to the said undivided one-eighth mineral interest.

The parties stipulated the following issues:

1) “Is fee simple title to that certain undivided one-eighth mineral interest in dispute vested in Anne Potter or Pete R. Scarmardo and wife, Rosa Scarmar-do?”
2) “Is the oil, gas and mineral leaseholder of that certain undivided one-eighth mineral interest in dispute herein Jordan Engineering, Inc. and its assigns, or Amalgamated Bonanza Petroleum, Ltd.?”

Attorneys for all parties to the suit filed briefs and memoranda of law with the Court on the disputed questions of law for the trial court’s consideration and determination. Upon the record of title presented and shown therein, the trial court decreed that Potter recover from Scarmardo and Bonanza title and possession to the undivided one-eighth interest in all oil, gas and [758]*758other minerals in and under the property in question. The court further ordered and declared Jordan to be the leaseholder of said one-eighth interest and all cloud to Potter’s one-eighth mineral interest removed. The court further found Scarmar-do had no title or interest in the mineral estate of the subject property and declared the lease from Scarmardo to Bonanza void.

Appellants’ first and second points of error contend the trial court erred in failing to declare invalid the attempted reservation by Potter of the mineral estate and the lease executed to Jordan, and that the court erred in failing to quiet title in the mineral estate in Scarmardo and declare valid his lease to Bonanza. The basis of these contentions is since Potter failed to mention in his deed to Scarmardo the one-half mineral estate previously reserved by Frieling, seven-eighths of the undivided mineral estate was therefore warranted to Scarmardo. Also, since Potter owned only one-half of the minerals, he breached his warranty of title. Therefore, the Appellants contend that the failure of Potter to except the one-half undivided mineral estate in the warranty deed to Scarmardo requires a finding that the attempted reservation by Potter of the undivided one-eighth of the mineral estate is of no force and effect and that this conclusion is necessary to remedy the breach of warranty.

Appellants rely on the case of Duhig v. Peavy-Moore Lumber Co., 135 Tex. 503, 144 S.W.2d 878 (1940). In that case the fee-simple owner of the surface and mineral rights of a tract of land (Gilmer) conveyed the property to Duhig, reserving a one-half undivided mineral interest. Duhig then conveyed by warranty deed the property to the Miller-Link Lumber Co. (Miller-Link). In that conveyance, Duhig reserved a one-half undivided mineral interest, but did not mention the one-half undivided mineral interest previously reserved by Gilmer. The principle issue before the court was whether or not Duhig was the owner of the one-half interest he reserved, or whether Miller-Link owned the one-half interest. Miller-Link contended that the failure of

Duhig to include the exception by Gilmer prevented Duhig from claiming the interest he reserved. The Supreme Court of Texas states in its opinion what rules of law are to be applied. The Court first considered the literal meaning of the deed from Duhig to Miller-Link:

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Bluebook (online)
613 S.W.2d 756, 69 Oil & Gas Rep. 523, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scarmardo-v-potter-texapp-1981.