Dexter v. Lathrop

Citations

• 136 Pa. 565
• 20 W.N.C. 504
• 20 A. 545
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1052

Syllabus

<p>(а) A contract made in 1850, provided for the sale by the vendor “ of all the pine, norway, and oak timber, suitable for sawing, and down to twelve inches in diameter at the smallest end of the log, on his tract of timber land,” to be paid for by the thousand feet or by the acre, at the election of the purchasers;</p> <p>(б) “ But in either case they are to take said timber clean as they go, including all fit for sawing and down to twelve inches in diameter at the smallest end of the log: . . . . the timber to be taken off clean; that is, all good merchantable timber down to twelve inches at the smallest end of the log.”</p> <p>(c) “ And also, whether they take by the thousand or by the acre, to cut the timber clean as they go; that is, when they commence cutting upon any one hundred acres they will take the timber off from that part, ...... to pi’event them from running over the whole tract and cutting out the best timber, or the best groves of timber, and leave the balance scattered over the tract: ”</p> <p>1. The words “ down to twelve inches in diameter at the smallest end of the log,” in their connection, did not create a reservation of timber to be left standing, or an exception of certain sizes out of the general grant of all the timber, but were parenthetic and explanatory of the duty of the purchasers to the vendor.</p> <p>2. Said contract, therefore, construed in the light of the period when it was made and of its application to the timber on a very large tract, required the purchasers to cut and remove all good merchantable timben, ‘ ‘ including all fit for sawing,” to be determined when the trees were reached in the process of removal, down to twelve inches in diameter.</p> <p>3. Under said contract, the vendor and purchasers did not sustain to each other the relation of tenants in common, but each was a sole tenant of his own estate, the one in tire land, the other in the timber: Wheeler v. Carpenter, 107 Pa. 271, and Shiffer v. Broadhead, 126 Pa. 26