Powell v. Schoenfeld

Citations

• 262 Pa. 588
• 106 A. 110
• 1919 Pa. LEXIS 728

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Competency of witness — Party dead — Oil and gas lease — Forfeiture—Estoppel—Waiver—Act of May 28, 1887, P. L. 158.</p> <p>1. Where in an action of ejectment for oil and gas land, it appears that plaintiffs claimed under a lease, and that defendants claimed under a lease of the same land from the heirs of the lessor, who had executed the second lease in pursuance of forfeiture because of the failure of the plaintiffs to drill a well within the time limit in their lease, it is reversible error to permit one of the plaintiffs to testify that the lessor in his lifetime claimed that a well which had been drilled by plaintiffs under a lease to plaintiffs of adjoining land from another owner, had really been drilled on his land, and in effect accepted this well as a compliance with the conditions of his lease to plaintiffs.</p> <p>2. In reversing such a judgment, however, the appellate court will not direct judgment for defendant n. o. v. where there is other evidence apart from that which was incompetent, from which a jury might infer that when the well in question was discovered on the land of the decedent it was accepted by the deceased or his heirs as performance of the conditions of the lease held by the plaintiffs.</p>