Collins v. Mount Pleasant Oil & Gas Co.

Citations

• 85 Kan. 483
• 118 P. 54
• 1911 Kan. LEXIS 101

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Lease — Oil-and-gas Land — Non-user—Cancellation. In an oil lease the lessors granted to the lessees the exclusive right, for five years, to enter upon a tract of land and drill for oil, for which a small cash consideration was paid, and the lessees-were to deliver, in tanks, to the lessors, one-eighth of the oil produced, and it was provided that if oil in paying quantities was discovered the right of the lessees to operate should con-] tinue as long as it was found in paying quantities, and when; abandoned for such purposes the grant should cease and b4 no longer binding on either party. The lessees drilled five wells, in which oil was found, and cased them, but the lessees claimed that the prevailing prices of • oil of the kind and quality found did not warrant operation, and so the wells were capped and no oil was ever pumped from them. In this action, begun more than five years after the execution of the lease, it is held that the lessors were entitled to a cancellation of the lease.</p> <p>2. -■ Right of Lessee to Remove Machinery and Fixtures, In the lease was a provision giving the lessees the right to remove any machinery and fixtures which it might place on the premises. Under this provision it is held that the lessees are entitled to remove the casing which it placed in the wells drilled and which it found could not be operated with profit.</p>