Pennsylvania Coal & Coke Co. v. Witherow

Citations

• 215 Pa. 327
• 64 A. 535
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 791

Syllabus

<p>Mines and mining — Coal lease — Minimum royalty — Forfeiture.</p> <p>A coal lease provided for the payment of ten cents per ton royalty on all merchantable coal mined or that could reasonably be mined; that the lessee should begin the shipment of coal within four months “ or pay a minimum royalty on thirty thousand tons per year in lieu thereof; and to pay continuously a minimum royalty at the rate of thirty thousand tons per year until said coal was exhausted.” It was further provided “if the minimum amount was not mined, but paid for, that the excess of all sums over and above the coal actually mined shall be applied on the coal to be mined in succeeding months so that in the end no more coal shall be paid for than is actually mined and taken out under this lease.” A supplemental agreement was afterwards made which provided for the payment of fixed amounts of royalties each month, making the total annual payment $2,000, and that if the lessee “ .... in any year fail to mine the full minimum of thirty thousand tons called for in the lease, he or his assigns shall pay to the lessor a bonus of sixty dollars for each year he fails to mine the full minimum in addition to the sum hereinbefore specified in this supplement, the sixty dollars not to be deducted from any royalty otherwise due .... the original lease to be and remain unchanged in all other respects.” Held, (1) that the supplemental agreement was an absolute contract by the lessee to pay the lessor the fixed sum named therein at fixed times regardless of all other conditions; (2) that in the absence of proof that the plaintiff had paid royalty for all coal that could be mined, the provision of the original lease “that in the end no more coal should be paid for'than is actually mined” did not become operative; and (3) that overpayment for the coal actually mined did not relieve the lessee from the payment of minimum royalty as long as the lessee remained in possession.</p>