Kennedy v. Crawford

Citations

• 138 Pa. 561
• 21 A. 19
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 1134

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>(«) An oil lease, reserving royalty, provided that the lessee should commence drilling a well within a specified time and “ prosecute said drilling with duo diligence to success or abandonment; and, should oil or gas not be pumped or excavated in paying quantities on or before June 27,1886, then this lease to be null and void.” A subsequent clause made the violation of any stipulation in the lease a cause of forfeiture:</p> <p>1. The drilling could not be regarded as prosecuted to success so long as no actual product of oil or gas was obtained; and the lessee, after drilling into the oil-bearing rock, and finding oil, for the production of which it was necessary to pump the well, was bound by his covenant to exercise due diligence in ascertaining whether the oil could be produced in paying quantities, and, if it could be, in effecting such production.</p> <p>2. The provision respecting the production of oil or gas on or before June 27, 1886, did not give the lessee a discretion to suspend operations indefinitely, after drilling the well, provided he effected such production by the date named; and, if, having completed such drilling in December 1885, he ceased operations for three months thereafter, making no effort during that period to produce oil, he thereby incurred a forfeiture.</p>