Mills v. Hartz

Citations

• 77 Kan. 218
• 94 P. 142
• 1908 Kan. LEXIS 246

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>Mines and Minerals — Lease—Forfeiture—Abandonment—Cancelation of Contract. Under a lease of land for gas, oil or coal purposes the lessee was given the exclusive right to dig and bore for gas, oil or coal for a term of twenty years, and as much longer as any of these could be found in paying quantities; also the right of way on and over the land to explore and operate, including the right to erect buildings and appliances for procuring gas, oil or coal on the land and the right to remove all improvements and machinery when the land was abandoned or the lease had expired. The only consideration for the lease, aside from the technical one of one dollar, was a royalty of eight cents a ton on coal mined and fifty dollars per annum for the gas procured from each well, and sufficient gas to supply two stoves in the lessor’s farmhouse. No grounds of forfeiture were specified. Held, in a suit to cancel the lease, that it contemplated early exploration and operation, and a failure on the part of the lessee to begin operations for a period of about seven years is equivalent to a surrender by the lessee and gave the lessor the right to treat the contract as abandoned.</p>