Woodruff v. Gunton

Citations

• 222 Pa. 376
• 71 A. 849
• 1909 Pa. LEXIS 884

Syllabus

<p>Mines and mining — Rental—Interest on deferred payments.</p> <p>Where a coal lease provides that if by reason of a strike or other cause over which the lessee has no control, continuing longer than one month, the lessee shall be prevented from mining the minimum quantity of coal for the year, the mine rent may be abated proportionately, provided that three months’ rent shall in any event be paid, and the lessee in an action for rental testifies that he was prevented from mining for a certain length of time by causes over which he had no control, but in a previous trial testified that the delay was due to lack of funds, it is for the jury to say whether the lessee should pay interest on the deferred payments of rental. In such a case if the jury should find that the lessee had been delayed by reason of the lack of money in the prosecution of his work, he would properly be charged with interest on the deferred payments.</p> <p>Mines and mining — Coal lease — Culm—Net profits.</p> <p>A mining léase provided a certain price “for all coal that will pass over a screen of an eighth of an inch mesh and all that will pass through is to be classified as culm, and for said culm that it sold the said lessee is to pay the lessors one-tenth of the net profit of said culm.” In an action to recover for the profit on the culm the lessee contended that the entire cost of mining the coal and culm was to be taken into account in determining what were the net profits on the culm. The lessor introduced evidence which tended to show that it was impossible for the lessee to mine and prepare the royalty coal for market without producing culm, and that when the culm was sold by the defendant, the entire amount received for the same, less the cost of loading it, was net profit, as it had cost the lessee nothing to produce it. Held, that the case was for the jury, and that a verdict and judgment for plaintiff should be sustained.</p>