Stage v. Boyer

Citations

• 183 Pa. 560
• 38 A. 1035
• 1898 Pa. LEXIS 1079

Syllabus

<p>Lease — Oil and gas lease — Abandonment.</p> <p>An oil and gas lease for ten years provided that a failure to commence operations and complete a well within one year or pay a fixed sum for delay would be ground for failure of all rights under the lease, the lessee to have the privilege of abandoning the premises at any time, but an abandonment was not to deprive him of the right to convey oil and gas over this land from other lands, upon the payment of an annual rental for the privilege. The lessee drilled one unproductive well within a year, and he then notified the lessor of his intention to abandon the well. He drew the casing, plugged the well, removed his machinery, and thereafter conducted no other operations on the land. He, however, operated on other lands in the vicinity. Four or five years after the lessee abandoned the search the lessor demanded a surrender of the lease, but the lessee refused the request and testified on the trial of an ejectment brought by him to enforce his lease, that he had not abandoned his lease and never had intended to do so. Held, (1) that the evidence ivas sufficient to sustain a finding that the lessee had abandoned the right to operate wells under the lease; (2) that the lessee’s refusal to surrender the lease was explained by the fact that he had the right under it to convey oil and gas over the lessor’s land from other lands.</p>