Corona Coal & Coke Co. v. Dickinson

Citations

• 261 Pa. 589
• 104 A. 741
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 794

Syllabus

<p>Mines and mining — Coal lease — Difficulty of performance — Construction — Royalties—Change of character of vein.</p> <p>1. Inconvenience or the cost of compliance, though they might make compliance a hardship, cannot excuse a party from the performance of an absolute and unqualified undertaking to do a thing which is possible and lawful.</p> <p>2. As a general rule a lessor is not relieved from liability by subsequent developments or changes in the property.</p> <p>3. Where the terms of a coal lease provide for the payment of a minimum royalty to the lessors by the lessee, the fact that the vein of coal becomes thinner and more difficult' to work and the coal of less value,' does not excuse the lessee from the duty to pay the minimum royalty provided by the lease, and, in an action of replevin for property seized by landlord’s warrant for nonpayment of minimum royalties due under the terms of the lease, the jury were properly directed to find a verdict for the defendant for the amount of royalties so due.</p>