Kiewit Texas Mining Co. v. Inglish

OPINION

THOMAS, Chief Justice.

Edwin Inglish, Jr. and Mary Raine, each acting individually and in their various representative capacities, sued Kiewit Texas Mining Company and Phillips Coal Company, lessees, for wrongfully repudiating a lignite lease in 1989. Kiewit and Phillips operated the lease as a joint venture under the name of Walnut Creek Mining Company. The lease, which had a twenty-five-year primary term, obligated the defendants to pay annual royalties based on the acres leased as well as a per-aere bonus at the end of the twelfth and twenty-fifth year. However, the annual royalty…