Parnell, Inc. v. Giller

This is a suit by the appellee Giller, the lessor, to require the appellant Parnell, the lessee, to account for royalties assertedly due under a rather unusual lease providing for the commercial production of salt water from the lessor’s land. Parnell sells the brine to a chemical company, which extracts bromine from it. The contract between Parnell and the chemical company requires Parnell to deliver the raw salt water (by pipeline) to the purchaser’s plant and to dispose of the spent brine (by returning it to the earth) after it has been processed.

The royalty payable to the lessor is…