McCormick v. Berkey

Citations

• 238 Pa. 264
• 86 A. 97
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 954

Syllabus

<p>Ejectment — Buie to bring ejectment — Issue to determine title— Underlying minerals — Seated lands — Possession—Title under tax sale — Act of June 10, 1898, P. L. 1J5.</p> <p>1. The Act of June 10, 1893, P. L. 415, confers jurisdiction upon the court to frame an issue to determine title to underlying minerals where the petition, accompanied by an abstract of title, avers, in addition to the other necessary jurisdictional facts, that a tract of land was conveyed to the petitioners “excepting and reserving, however, under the operation of this tract......192 acres 113 perches of the surface of the said tract of land” which had previously been conveyed to another; that the respondents claim title to the mineral and mining privileges under the 192 acres by virtue of a tax sale; that the petitioner and his predecessors had held title to the minerals and had continuous possession of them for more than twenty years: and the answer of the respondents avers that they held title to the minerals in controversy by virtue of a sale of such as unseated mineral lands made by the county treasurer for the nonpayment of taxes assessed thereon and that they had been in continued and uninterrupted possession of the said minerals since the said sale.</p> <p>2. Where in such a case the lands in controversy are undeveloped and unimproved and not in the actual possession of any person, possession such as follows and is incident to the tax title is not sufficient to oust the jurisdiction of the court under the Act of 1893.</p> <p>3. A conveyance which describes the tract conveyed as a single body of land, excepting and reserving surface rights in a part thereof, vests title in the grantee to the residue of the entire tract of surface and all the minerals underlying the whole tract, and where part of the tract so conveyed is seated it makes the residue of the entire tract seated.</p> <p>Taxation — Assessment—Mineral lands — Seated land — Tax sale —Title.</p> <p>4. It is the duty of tax of