Washington N. Gas Co. v. Johnson

Citations

• 123 Pa. 576
• 16 A. 799
• 1889 Pa. LEXIS 683

Syllabus

<p>i. Owing to his privity ol contract with the lessor, a lessee’s liability upon his covenants in an oil- and gas-lease, continues after his assignment of the lease; but an assignee of the lease, being in privity of estate only with the lessor, is liable only upon covenants which are . broken while his privity of estate exists.</p> <p>2. Each successive assignee would be liable upon covenants which are broken while the title is held by him, but, because of the absence of any contract relations with the lessor, he would not be liable upon covenants broken before he obtained title or maturing after he had parted with it.</p> <p>3. An assignee of an oil- and gas-lease is not liable to the lessor upon a covenant of the lessee to drill a well upon the demised premises, when the time for performance had elapsed before the assignee acquired title'under the assignment: Bradford Oil Co. v. Blair, 113 Pa. 83, distinguished.</p> <p>4. If, pending the adjustment of a disputed liability, the debtor transmit money to his creditor as a paymient in full of the demand, the creditor may not receive and retain the money as a credit upon a larger sum claimed by him, without discharging the debtor as to the whole.</p>