Shank v. Franklin Coal Co.

Citations

• 107 Kan. 380
• 191 P. 482
• 1920 Kan. LEXIS 81

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>Contract — Subsurface Coal Mining — Estate in Lands — Termination of Contract. Where the owners sold and conveyed the coal in place underlying a farm and granted surface trackage rights, also rights of ingress and egress, and the right to construct mining facilities “for such period of time as the grantee may require to remove the coal under said land,” and gave the grantee the right to remove all mining equipment “whenever said coal is mined, or at the expiration of this agreement”; and the contract concluded with the further stipulation:</p> <p>“It is further agreed by and between the parties hereto their heirs and assigns that this contract shall cease and be determined, and all of the rights of the said second parties their heirs or assigns thereunder or hereby acquired, shall terminate and determine at the expiration of twenty years from the date hereof. That said second parties their heirs or assigns shall give quiet and peaceable possession of said premises and every part thereof at the expiration of the time herein stated unto the said first parties their heirs or assigns,” it is held that the sale and conveyance of the coal was a grant of a limited estate of twenty years’ duration, defeasible as to any coal not mined within the time limit fixed by the contract.</p>