Brewster v. Lanyon Zinc Co.

Citations

• 140 F. 801
• 72 C.C.A. 213
• 1905 U.S. App. LEXIS 3960

Syllabus

<p>1. Mines and Minerals — Oil and Gas Lease — Suit to Avoid — Inadequacy of Consideration.</p> <p>Mere inadequacy of consideration or other inequality in the terms of a lease does not in itself constitute a ground to avoid it in equity.</p> <p>2. Same — Option to Terminate — Tenancy at Will.</p> <p>A lease for a definite and permissible term, but which reserves to the lessee an option to terminate it before the expiration of the term does not create a mere tenancy at will within the operation of the rule that an estate at the will of one party is equally at the will of the other.</p> <p>3. Same — Want of Mutuality.</p> <p>A lease given upon consideration of one dollar paid at the time is not wanting in,mutuality merely because it reserves to one party an option to terminate it which it withholds from the other.</p> <p>4. Same — Separate Tracts Included in One Lease — Express Stipulation for Development.</p> <p>An oil and gas lease on three separate tracts gave the lessee two years within which to drill “a well upon said premises,” and provided that the time might be enlarged by the payment of an annual rental from the expiration of the second year “until said well is drilled,” and that if “no well” should be drilled “upon said premises” within five years the lease should be void. Helé, that the measure of diligence which the lessee was required to exercise in prosecuting the work of exploration and development during the first five years was expressly defined, and not left to the implication which otherwise might have arisen from the nature of the lease and the other stipulations therein, and that, a well having been drilled on one of the tracts during the fifth year and the stipulated rental having been paid from the end of the second year until that well was drilled, the lease was not avoidable merely because other wells were not drilled during the five year period.</p> <p>5. Same — Sale by Lessor of Part of Leased Land — Subsequent Breach of Condition.</p> <p>A