Diederich v. Ware

288 S.W.2d 643 (1956)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

By recorded deed, dated April 2, 1859, G. W. Webb and others conveyed to William P. Mellon and Algernon S. Gray the oil under their adjoining tracts of land in Johnson County, Kentucky. Around 1920, after many years of comparative inactivity, the heirs of Algernon S. Gray and the heirs and assigns of William P. Mellon conveyed their interest in the 1859 oil deed to a North Carolina corporation known as the Gray-Mellon Oil Company (GMOC). Eventually, the title to the property reverted to the stockholders. P acquired his title from Ruffner Campbell, who was one of the Gray heirs and who owned 3/28 of the stock of the GMOC and who would have been an heir inheriting 3/28 interest had there been no corporation. P acquired for value both the deed for 3/28 undivided interest and 3/28 portion of the capital stock of GMOC. D traces his title back to C. F. Webb and shows that by tradition C. F. Webb was the son and heir of G. W. Webb and that in some manner C. F. Webb acquired title from G. W. Webb. The record does show that C. F. Webb was a son of the G. W. Webb mentioned in the oil mineral deed and the legend is that G. W. Webb conveyed to C. F. Webb. None of the conveyances or leases from C. F. Webb down to D makes any mention or reference to the old oil deed. Pand his predecessors are claiming under G. W. Webb, the original grantor, rather than as strangers, and the record shows that at the time C. F. Webb purported to convey a fee simple in part of the land formerly owned by his father, there was on file in the Johnson County courthouse the recorded 1859 oil deed. In 1923, B. H. Blanton, then owner of the particular tract involved in this suit and one of D's predecessors in title, entered into a lease with Mid South Oil Company (MSOC), giving that company a right to drill on this 56-acre tract. MSOC drilled two wells in 1924 which have been operated openly, notoriously, and continuously on the property from 1924 until the present. P's predecessors knew of this exploration. D claims as a remote vendee or assignee under the 1924 lease executed by his predecessor in title, Blanton, with MSOC, but since that lease gave merely exploration and producing rights, he claims more particularly as an owner of the tract in question through the deed by which it was conveyed to him. P sued for a declaratory judgment claiming that he still owned the mineral rights. The court ruled for D but did not state whether its acquisition of title by adverse possession was for the entire tract or just a small corner. P appealed.