Westmoreland Coal Co.'s Appeal
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the Court of Common- Pleas of Westmoreland county: Of October and November Term 1877, No. 275. This was a bill in equity filed by John Irwin and others against the Westmoreland Coal Company, to restrain it from committing waste and for an account.
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Error to the Court of Common- Pleas of Westmoreland county: Of October and November Term 1877, No. 275. This was a bill in equity filed by John Irwin and others against the Westmoreland Coal Company, to restrain it from committing waste and for an account. It alleged that the plaintiffs are the owners of the freehold (where the alleged waste is committed), after the life-estate of Mrs. Martha Hughes is determined, and that it is underlaid with the Pittsburgh vein or seam of bituminous- coal. That defendant has by drifts and adits opened the vein, and is mining and carrying away the coal, to…
1Opinion of the CourtJustice Mercur
The rule is well settled that it is not waste in a tenant for life, to work open mines. When not precluded by restraining words, such a tenant may work them to exhaustion. Kier v. Peterson, 5 Wright 357; Neel v. Neel, 7 Harris 323; Irwin v. Covode, 12 Id. 162.
It may be conceded that the term mine, when applied to coal is generally equivalent to a worked vein, for by working the vein, it becomes a mine; it therefore follows that if a mine be opened and worked, the tenant for life may pursue that vein to the boundaries of the tract on which it is found. Here the attempt is made to enlarge the…
2Cited by10 opinions
- Marshall v. MellonSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1897
- Titus v. Poland Coal Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1923
- Northern Pacific Ry. Co. v. MjeldeMontana Supreme Court · 1913
- Knox's Estate (No. 1)Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1937
- Bond v. GodseySupreme Court of Virginia · 1901
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