Prager's Estate

Citations

• 74 Pa. Super. 592
• 1920 Pa. Super. LEXIS 205

Syllabus

<p>Decedents’ estates — Wills—Oil and gas leases — Severance.</p> <p>A devise of a farm, subject to the payment of five thousand dollars, will not carry with it the right to royalties accruing from the sale of the oil and gas therein and under, when such rights have been separated by the testator, and the same sold prior to his death.</p> <p>The sale and conveyance of all the oil and gas on the farm was a severance of these minerals from the surface or the rest of the fee. Its operation, as to the estate conveyed, was the same whether the consideration was a lump sum payable at once, or in installments, or was in the nature of a royalty on the oil and gas produced and removed. The fact that the purchase money was payable in royalties instead of at one time did not change the character of the sale to that of a lease, and the purchase money or royalties were payable to the executors and not to the heirs or devisees of the testator.</p>