Weaver v. Ellis

469 N.E.2d 251, 127 Ill. App. 3d 725, 82 Oil & Gas Rep. 479, 82 Ill. Dec. 717, 1984 Ill. App. LEXIS 2339
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedAugust 17, 1984
DocketNo. 5—83—0456
StatusPublished

This text of 469 N.E.2d 251 (Weaver v. Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Weaver v. Ellis, 469 N.E.2d 251, 127 Ill. App. 3d 725, 82 Oil & Gas Rep. 479, 82 Ill. Dec. 717, 1984 Ill. App. LEXIS 2339 (Ill. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

JUSTICE JONES

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is an appeal from a judgment rendered for defendants in an action to quiet title in the circuit court of Wayne County. In this appeal the plaintiffs, Owen and Dorothy Weaver, contest the trial court’s construction of a mineral deed denying them any interest in the oil, gas and other minerals underlying a 40-acre tract described as:

“The Northeast Quarter of the Southwest Quarter of Section 8, Township 1 South, Range 6 East of the Third Principal Median, Wayne County, Illinois.”

Prior to December 14, 1942, title to the described real estate was vested in Frank Weaver, Lillie E. Weaver and Corine McKitrick. On December 14, 1942, Frank Weaver and Lillie E. Weaver, who were husband and wife, Corine E. McKitrick and her husband, J.A. McKitrick, conveyed to Mary Urania Fotiades an undivided one-fourth interest in the oil and gas underlying the 40 acres. Although this deed contained language indicative of the creation of a reversionary interest, neither Mary Urania Fotiades nor her heirs or assigns were made parties to this lawsuit, and the one-fourth interest conveyed to her is not affected by this case and will not be further noticed.

On January 23, 1943, Frank Weaver and Lillie E. Weaver conveyed to Corine E. McKitrick their entire interest in the oil and gas (only) underlying the 40 acres.

Two days later, on January 25, 1943, Corine E. McKitrick, joined by her husband, J.A. McKitrick, conveyed to J.A. McKitrick an undivided one-eighth interest in the oil, gas and other minerals. On that same day, Corine E. McKitrick and J.A. McKitrick conveyed to their children, the defendants herein, Velma McKitrick, Deloris D. McKitrick, Lillian R. McKitrick and Auburn F. McKitrick, an undivided one-half interest in the oil, gas and other minerals for a period of “fifteen (15) years or as long thereafter as oil or gas are produced on said property ***.” It is the reversionary interest created by this deed that is the subject of this lawsuit.

On February 2, 1946, Corine E. McKitrick, J.A. McKitrick, Frank Weaver and Lillie E. Weaver conveyed the 40 acres by general warranty deed, without any exception or reservation of oil, gas or other mineral rights, to the plaintiffs Owen Weaver and Dorothy Weaver. The purport of this deed was that it conveyed the surface and the entirety of the oil, gas and other mineral rights underlying the tract. However, because of the previous conveyance to the defendants, at the time of execution and delivery of the deed the grantors owned only a present one-fourth interest in the oil, gas and other minerals plus a one-half reversionary interest that would vest upon the cessation of production as provided by the mineral deed of January 25, 1943, to the defendants.

On August 13, 1957, Owen Weaver and Dorothy Weaver executed a mineral deed to Corine E. McKitrick and J.A. McKitrick conveying an interest in the oil, gas and other minerals. In pertinent part, that deed “convey[ed] and warranted] *** an undivided one-fourth (V4) interest in and to all of the oil and gas, and other minerals in and under the following described real estate ***.” The deed then described the same 40-acre tract. The deed provided further in a specially typed clause inserted at the bottom of the deed, just above the date and signatures, that “[i]t is the intention of the Grantors herein to convey to the Grantees herein all interest in and to the oil, gas, and other minerals acquired by Grantors by virtue of that certain Warranty Deed dated February 2, 1946, and recorded in Deed Record 190 at page 454.”

The issue this case presents is raised by the deed of February 2, 1946, from Frank and Lillie Weaver and the McKitricks to the plaintiffs that by its terms conveyed all the oil, gas and other minerals and the deed of August 13, 1957, from the plaintiffs to the McKitricks that in its granting clause conveyed a one-fourth interest in the oil, gas and other minerals but then in the specially inserted clause expressed the grantors’ intent to convey back all interest in the oil, gas and other minerals that they had acquired by the deed of February 2, 1946. Did the specially inserted “intent” clause operate to convey the one-half interest that reverted with the cessation of production along with the one-fourth interest mentioned in the granting clause? The plaintiffs argue that it did not, for the real intention of the parties to the August 13, 1957, deed was to convey only the one-fourth interest expressly mentioned but not the one-half reversionary interest. The defendants, the sole heirs of the McKitricks, contend that the intent of the parties to the August 13, 1957, deed was to reconvey to the McKitricks all the interest in the oil, gas and other minerals in the 40-acre tract that was erroneously and mistakenly conveyed to plaintiffs by Frank and Lillie Weaver and the McKitricks by the deed of February 2, 1946.

The trial court entered judgment for the defendants, finding that by the August 13, 1957, deed the plaintiffs intended to, and did, convey to the McKitricks “all of their undivided one-quarter possessory interest in the oil, gas and other minerals and also all nonpossessory mineral interests which the grantors may have had or claimed by reason of the prior conveyance to grantors from grantees dated February 2, 1946.”

The only issue before this court is whether the trial court erred in construing the deed of August 13, 1957, as having conveyed from the plaintiffs to the McKitricks both the one-fourth possessory interest and the one-half reversionary interest in the oil, gas and other minerals. We think it did not err, and we affirm.

The primary purpose of the construction of a deed is to ascertain the intention of the parties, such to be determined and gathered from the instrument as a whole, giving effect to every word and rejecting none as meaningless or repugnant, if it can be done without violating any positive rule of law. (Miller v. Ridgley (1954), 2 Ill. 2d 223, 117 N.E.2d 759; Smith v. Grubb (1949), 402 Ill. 451, 84 N.E.2d 421; Goin v. Eater (1982), 107 Ill. App. 3d 887, 438 N.E.2d 234.) Also the circumstances attending the transaction, the situation of the parties, the objects which they had in mind, as shown by the deed, as well as those they did not have in mind and could not attain, merit consideration in construing deeds. (Miller v. Ridgley (1954), 2 Ill. 2d 223, 117 N.E.2d 759; Texas Co. v. O’Meara (1941), 377 Ill. 144, 36 N.E.2d 256.) “The manifest meaning of section 13 [Ill. Rev. Stat. 1947, ch. 30, par. 12] is that when words of inheritance are not used, every word, no matter where appearing in the deed must, if possible, be given weight in determining the estate granted.” (Smith v. Grubb (1949), 402 Ill. 451, 460, 84 N.E.2d 421, 426.) The words need not be construed literally or strictly, since greater regard is accorded to the real intention as manifested in the entire deed than to any particular work or arrangement in its expression.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Roots v. Uppole
400 N.E.2d 1003 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1980)
Miller v. Ridgley
117 N.E.2d 759 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1954)
Goin v. Eater
438 N.E.2d 234 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1982)
Smith v. Grubb
84 N.E.2d 421 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1949)
Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. West
30 N.E.2d 24 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1940)
Texas Company v. O'Meara
36 N.E.2d 256 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1941)
Boone v. Robert
5 L.R.A. 276 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1889)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
469 N.E.2d 251, 127 Ill. App. 3d 725, 82 Oil & Gas Rep. 479, 82 Ill. Dec. 717, 1984 Ill. App. LEXIS 2339, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weaver-v-ellis-illappct-1984.