Watt v. Barnes

84 N.E. 158, 41 Ind. App. 466, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 190
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 31, 1908
DocketNo. 6,115
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 84 N.E. 158 (Watt v. Barnes) 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
Watt v. Barnes, 84 N.E. 158, 41 Ind. App. 466, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 190 (Ind. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

Myers, J.

Appellant by his complaint in two para-' graphs sought to recover from appellee rentals alleged to be due to him under the stipulations in a certain oil and gas lease.

This suit was commenced in the Wells Circuit Court on April 10,- 1899. The venue was <?hanged to the Jay Circuit Court, where appellant’s request “to submit said cause to a jury for trial” was overruled. The issues were submitted to the court, ánd at the request of the parties the court made special findings of fact and stated conclusions of law thereon. Judgment was rendered against appellant in accordance with the conclusions of law, and for a reversal of that judgment he appeals, and relies upon questions pre[468]*468sented under the following assignments of error: That the court erred (1) in its conclusions of law; (2) in overruling his motion for a new trial.

1. The first question argued by appellant is based on the ruling of the court in refusing to submit the cause to a jury. This ruling was properly assigned as a cause for a new trial. Ketcham v. Brazil Block Coal Co. (1883), 88 Ind. 515; Meloy v. Weathers (1905), 35 Ind. App. 165.

2. Appellee insists that this question is waived, for the reason that appellant’s brief does not set out any part of the bill of exceptions from which the court can determine, without reference to the record, just what the bill of exceptions shows on this subject. In appellant’s brief we find what’ purports to be a copy of the written request, and we are referred to the page and line of the record where the bill of exceptions may be found, making said request a part of the record. This statement in appellant’s brief is not challenged by appellee. The question is before us for decision.

3. Section 418 Burns 1908, §409 R. S. 1881, provides that “issues of law and issues of facts in causes that, prior to the 18th day of June, 1852, were of exclusive equitable jurisdiction, shall be tried by the court. * * * In case of the joinder of causes of action or defenses which, prior to said date, were of exclusive equitable jurisdiction, with causes of action or defenses which, prior to said date, were designated as actions at law and triable by jury — the former shall be triable by the court, and the latter by a jury, unless waived,” etc. In this case the request for a jury trial was not limited to either paragraph of the complaint, but applied to the complaint as a whole, or, in other words, to the issues triable in both paragraphs. Therefore, under a well-recognized rule of law, if either paragraph invoked the powers of a court of equity there was no error in denying the'request. Jennings v. Moon (1893), 135 Ind. 168, 174; Heberd v. Wines (1886), 105 Ind. 237, [469]*469240; Baum v. Thoms (1898), 150 Ind. 378, 390, 65 Am. St. 368.

4. The first paragraph of the complaint presented an action at law, and was therefore triable by a jury. The second paragraph is based upon a certain stipulation in an oil and gas lease executed by appellant and George B. Marker on September 8, 1893, whereby appellee agreed, that if no well was completed within fifty days from the date of the lease “this grant shall become null and void,” and to drill a second well within sixty days from completion of first well, third well ninety days from completion of second well, and fourth well ninety days from completion of third well. “If second, third and fourth wells are not completed within the time specified, a rental of $2 per day to be paid until such wells are completed. Said rental to be paid weekly in advance.” The first and second wells were drilled, but the other two were not. The penalty, or rental as it is termed in the lease, for failure to drill the third and fourth wells as provided in the lease, was settled by appellee, and no claim is made for any pen- • alty or rental prior to April 4, 1895. On July 16, 1894, appellant and said Marker, as owners of the real estate covered by said lease, by warranty deed conveyed said land to William R. Pace, in which deed the following provision is found: “This deed is taken subject to an oil lease given to said George W. Barnes dated September 8, 1893. Said John W. Watt reserves one-sixth of all oil produced on the above-described land for a term of eight years from this date.” Appellant also alleges certain facts upon which he relies for a reformation of said provision in said deed, whereby he would be entitled to the daily penalty as stipulated in the lease for failure to drill all of the wells as therein provided, as also one-sixth of the oil for said period of eight years. To this paragraph of the complaint appellee answered in five paragraphs: (1) By general denial; (2) that appellant by his warranty deed had divested,him[470]*470self of all title to the real estate covered by the lease in suit; (3) that on April 4, 1895, the wells on said land had become exhausted, and that appellee had surrendered all of his interest in and to said real estate by virtue of said lease to said Pace, who was then the owner of the land; (4) former adjudication; (5) averring a surrender of the lease, in January, 1897, to the owner of the land. To these affirmative answers appellant replied by a general denial.

5. Appellant by this paragraph of complaint undertook to allege a state of facts entitling him to a reformation of the deed whereby all interests of the lessors under the lease, including all rights of action thereon, should remain and continue in appellant for a term of years. The relief prayed for was that the deed be reformed by incorporating therein certain language set out in the complaint, in effect giving appellant the right to maintain this suit. While the character of the suit cannot be determined solely by the prayer for relief, yet such prayer may be considered in connection with the substantive facts pleaded. Krise v. Wilson (1903), 31 Ind. App. 590; Jennings v. Moon, supra.

4. Appellant insists that the ultimate purpose of the suit was a money judgment. While that is true, yet such judgment, under the facts pleaded in the second paragraph of the complaint, was made to depend upon a state of facts entitling appellant to a reformation of his deed to Pace, and, this being true, the authorities seem to hold that such a case is of equitable cognizance, and triable by the court without a jury. 24 Cyc. Law and Proc., 117.

L'6. Appellant under his first assignment of error argues that appellee is. estopped to set up .as a defense to this suit the fact of the conveyance of the real estate by appellant and Marker to William R. Pace, for the reason that that question was adjudicated in appellant’s favor in a former action.

[471]*471The special findings cover about sixteen printed pages of appellant’s brief. Those material to the cpiestion for decision, in substance, are as follows: On September 8, 1893, appellant and George B. Marker were the owners as tenants in common of certain real estate in Wells county, Indiana, and on that day executed to appellee an oil and gas lease on the same. The lease, a copy of which is made a part of the findings, was a grant of all the oil and gas in and under said real estate, with the right to appellee to enter on said land and explore the same for oil and gas, the lessors reserving one-sixth of all oil produced and saved from said premises.

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Related

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Bluebook (online)
84 N.E. 158, 41 Ind. App. 466, 1908 Ind. App. LEXIS 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watt-v-barnes-indctapp-1908.