[Download] "Berry v. Wondra" by Supreme Court of Kansas " Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Berry v. Wondra
- Author : Supreme Court of Kansas
- Release Date : January 03, 1952
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 62 KB
Description
The opinion of the court was delivered by This was a suit by the lessor of an oil and gas lease for a
decree requiring the lessee to further develop the leased
premises or for the cancellation of the lease except as to a
ten-acre area about a producing well. Plaintiff has appealed from
an adverse judgment. The facts are not seriously controverted and may be summarized
as follows: On and for sometime prior to June 4, 1947, W.G.
Berry, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, was the owner in fee
of the Southwest Quarter of Section 35, Township 23 South, Range
13 East of the 6th Principal Meridian, situated in Woodson
County, Kansas. On that date plaintiff and his wife executed and
delivered to Fred B. Lewis an oil and gas lease covering the
above described land for the consideration of one dollar and the
covenants and agreements contained in the lease for the sole
purpose of mining and operating for oil and gas, laying pipe
lines, building tanks and other structures necessary to produce,
care for and save any oil and gas found in the premises. It was
agreed that the lease would remain in force for a term of five
years from its date and as long thereafter as oil or gas was
produced from the land by the lessee. By it the lessee agreed to
deliver to the credit of the lessors, free of cost, one-eighth of
all oil produced and saved from the premises; if no well was
commenced on the land by June 4, 1948, the lease should terminate
unless the lessee delivered to a named bank for the lessor $160,
which would operate to secure the privilege to defer the
commencement of a well for twelve months, and contained other
provisions common in oil and gas leases. On July 17, 1947, Fred
B. Lewis assigned the oil and gas lease to Leon Wondra, a
resident of Nebraska, which assignment was duly recorded. On the
same date Leon Wondra assigned the oil and gas lease to Gerald A.
Mason, a resident of Oakland, California, reserving however, an
overriding royalty of three-sixteenths of eight-eighths of the
interest in the lease, which assignment was duly recorded, and on
the same date Leon Wondra assigned an undivided one-sixteenth
overriding royalty interest in the lease to Hazel G. Lewis, a
resident of Greenwood County, Kansas. Later the two-sixteenths
overriding royalty interest retained by Leon Wondra became
subject to a lien in favor of E.E. Lamb and Clyde Hill. Each of
these parties was made a defendant in the action, [173 Kan. 275]