Woodward Iron Co. v. Mumpower

GARDNER, Chief Justice.

Plaintiff, B. H. Mumpower, was the owner in fee simple of the surface rights of a tract of land consisting of a fraction over sixteen acres in Jefferson County, Alabama, upon which he conducted a dairy with about 80 cows. The defendant, Woodward Iron Company, owned the mineral rights to the property, and has mined coal thereunder, the general location being known as the “Mulga Mine.”

Mumpower purchased this property in 1927 for the sum of $3282, and at a time when the land was without improvements. It had upon it a good spring from which there flowed through much of the…