Lehigh Valley Coal Co. v. Heirs

Citations

• 248 Pa. 385
• 94 A. 74
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 583

Syllabus

<p>Contraéis — Leases—Coal leases — Royalties—Ambiguous terms —Contemporaneous construction — Forfeiture—Fquity — Injunction.</p> <p>1. Where a coal lease provided that the lessee should pay “for all coal mined above the size of pea coal at the rate and price of 25 cents per ton of 2,240 lbs., and for pea coal 12% cents per ton royalty until it is worth within 25 cents per ton of chestnut coal, and then to be 25 cents per ton,” that the lessee should “pay quarterly for the first two years from the first day of April next, for not less than 4,500 tons each year, for the third year 9,000 tons......” and for increased amounts in subsequent years, and that if in any one year the lessee should pay for more coal than lie mined, be might thereafter mine the coal he had paid for ■without further charge, but did not provide what proportion of the small sizes should compose the minimum quantity to be mined annually by the lessee, the terms of the lease in this respect were ambiguous and the rule of contemporaneous construction by the parties was applicable.</p> <p>2. Where in such case it appeared that for more than thirty years after the making of the lease, the minimum amount of royalties was computed by the parties on the tonnage of prepared sizes mined, not on prepared sizes and pea coal, the lease should be construed as providing that the minimum royalties should be so computed.</p> <p>3. Where in such case the lease provided that upon the failure of the lessee to pay the rentals for 90 days, the lease, at the option of the lessor, should terminate and the lessor should have the right of reentry, the fact that the lessee, after making a proper tender of most of the rental due, failed to pay a balance amounting to $56.25 for 90 days after the rent was due, did not entitle the lessor to enforce the forfeiture, where the question whether the rental was due as claimed was reasonably in doubt and had not been legally ascertained.</p> <p>4. Where it appears in a proceeding to