Lillibridge v. Lackawanna Coal Co.

Citations

• 143 Pa. 293
• 22 A. 1035
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 923

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>1. The surface of land and the minerals beneath it may be dissevered in title and become separate tenements. In case of such severance, the mineral becomes a separate corporeal hereditament, and its ownership is attended with all the attributes and incidents peculiar to the ownership of land.</p> <p>2. An instrument by which the owners of land “ granted, demised, leased, and to farm-let ” all the merchantable coal under their land, with the exclusive right to mine and remove the same, habendum, “until the exhaustion thereof, under the terms of this indenture,” effected a severance of title vesting in the “ lessee” an estate in fee-simple in the coal.</p> <p>3. Upon a bill filed by the grantors to restrain the grantee from transporting, through an open space 200 feet below the surface made by mining out part of the coal conveyed, other coal mined by the defendant from an adjoining tract, no actual injury to the plaintiffs being averred, a demurrer for want of equity was properly sustained.</p> <p>4. As it did not appear from the instrument, or even by averment, that such use of the open space was contrary to the intention of the parties in executing the grant, the defendant, as the owner of the substratum of coal, owned also the chamber or space enclosing it, and had the legal right, while his ownership continued, to transport other coal through it.</p> <p>5. There is no substantial difference between a title by exception out of a grant, and a title by direct grant of the same subject. Under an exception from a conveyance of land of all the coal therein, the dominion of the grantor over the coal is no greater, and his .ownership is no more absolute, than if his title were acquired by purchase from one owning both coal and surface.</p>