Thompson v. Christie

Citations

• 138 Pa. 230
• 20 A. 934
• 1890 Pa. LEXIS 1264

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>(a) In ejectment by the lessee in an oil-lease, the defendants claimed title, under a like lease prior in date to that of the plaintiff, but recorded after it; and, to show their own title, offered to prove that the former owners of their lease made the contract to sell it to them, received part of the purchase money, and put them in possession before the suit was brought.</p> <p>(b) They offered to show, further, that, before the suit was brought, they expended thousands of dollars in developing the property, and that their ' contract for the purchase was put in writing and signed by all the assignors but one, who assented to its terms and received his share of the money paid before, but signed the contract one day after the writ issued:</p> <p>1. The offer was admissible in support of the title set up by the defendants ; and, upon the facts stated in it, they could successfully defend their possession, if their lease was a valid and subsisting one, unless the plaintiff, in taking the subsequent lease, acquired his title in good faith and without notice of the defendants’ rights.</p> <p>2. To show that the plaintiff had not so acquired title, it was competent for the defendants to prove that the plaintiff’s law-partner, being applied to for advice how to terminate the lease hold by defendants, suggested the making of the second one to the plaintiff and putting it on record, to secure priority over the defendants’ unrecorded lease.</p> <p>3. Although the plaintiff, when he took his lease, was ignorant of the existence of the prior one, he could not profit by the lease thus obtained for him, without being affected with notice of the facts brought to the attention of his partner during, the negotiations and forming the inducement to the lease.</p> <p>4. Upon a covenant in an oil-lease, that the lessee shall drill a well within a specified time, and on failure so to do shall pay the lessor $40 per an-num until such well is commenced, the les