Dorr v. Reynolds

Citations

• 26 Pa. Super. 139
• 1904 Pa. Super. LEXIS 280

Syllabus

<p>Mines and mining — Coal lease — Sale of coal — Evidence.</p> <p>An instrument which is in its terms a demise of all coal in, under and upon a tract of land with the unqualified right to mine and remove the'same, is a sale of the coal in place; and this, too whether the purchase price is a lump sum, or is a certain rent or royalty, and notwithstanding a term is specified in which the coal is to be taken out. The fact that the instrument is called a lease, and the parties describe themselves as lessor and lessee, and that payment for the coal is called rent, does not change the legal effect of the deed ; and it is immaterial that there is in the deed a provision for the right of surrender by the grantee in the event that coal could not be mined at an average cost not exceeding the average cost of .mining in the mines of any one of the companies named in the contract, or the liberty of forfeiture for nonperformance of the terms of the contract, and it is also immeterial that the deed contained a covenant for the support of the roof.</p> <p>The effect of such a contract is to work a severance of the estate as a result of which the purchase money payable under the terms of the contract becomes personal property, and, as such, subject to the operation of the intestate laws, and the will of the owner.</p> <p>Evidence of witnesses as to the construction- of such an instrument is inadmissible.</p>